0:03

Hey, let's start the show. For Thursday,

0:06

October six twenty twenty two. Welcome

0:08

to this is only a test, the official podcast

0:11

of tested.

0:14

At Hello

0:29

hello welcome to the podcast

0:32

this week coming at you from

0:34

San Francisco, California home

0:37

of Monday night footballs,

0:40

victors, the San Francisco,

0:42

forty nine, Santa Clara, forty nine, I don't even

0:44

know anymore. We're home of a protester that

0:47

got absolutely destroyed. by

0:49

linebacker, Bobby Wacker. Like, that's

0:52

where the the the the gift of

0:54

the evening. Yes. Yes. But take that

0:56

Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl Champions

0:58

Los Angeles Rams, and that will be it

1:00

for the football talk for this

1:02

podcast. There it goes. Yeah. Oh,

1:04

you know, sure. I'm just noticing

1:07

now your Buffalo Bills helmet

1:09

that you have back there, your massive Bills

1:11

fan, of course, is the exact

1:13

same color scheme as the Millennium Falcon

1:15

t shirt I'm wearing right now, if

1:18

you're watching the video. It could there's

1:20

there's a rift that could be happening. right there.

1:22

Anyway, Kishore, how are you doing? I'm

1:24

doing well. I'm going on vacation

1:27

in mere hours. This podcast

1:29

is the only thing that stands in my way that

1:31

and packing under there. Oh my gosh.

1:33

I might have gotten my priorities mixed up.

1:35

And and where are you headed, if you can say? We're

1:37

road tripping to Bend, Oregon, a

1:40

place I have never been, but people

1:42

who will regale me with stories of because

1:44

it's a outdoor paradise and

1:47

there's good beer and whiskey. And

1:49

those are things I'm very much interested

1:51

in. Are you driving presumably?

1:53

Yeah. We're taking a road trip, you said? Yes. Yes.

1:55

Yes. Yeah. We're taking a road trip to kinda

1:58

take it take it slow and easy.

2:00

Yeah. So how two days drive? It's

2:03

it's only eight hours up there. So, like,

2:05

it it's not so bad, but there's like,

2:08

we have to pass the Mount Shasta, like,

2:10

We're talking about stopping at Lassen

2:13

National Park on the way back. There's

2:15

a lot of, like, kinda, almost

2:17

ghost towns, like, near the border.

2:20

There's some volcanic

2:22

caves up in that area

2:25

as you cross into Oregon and just

2:27

a ton of waterfalls. And we found

2:29

this like window where

2:32

there aren't wildfires happening in

2:35

the area that we're going to smoke free.

2:37

And both my wife and I got a booster

2:40

a couple weeks ago, so we feel impervious

2:42

to anything right now. Great.

2:44

It's just like that classic symptom stroke. And

2:46

all the Everything

2:49

bodies and everything is is shoving that

2:51

door, invincible, like

2:53

Michelle's face to burns. everything's

2:55

coming at That's all that needs

2:57

to be said. Yeah. Well, I hope you have a good

2:59

trip, and we'll get you on their way after

3:01

we cover next forty

3:03

five minutes to an hour of news

3:05

and comment. I wanna

3:08

kick things off with their a

3:10

reminder for folks who if you have not

3:12

been watching, Lord of the Rings,

3:14

the Rings of Power, it

3:16

is. some of the best television

3:20

on streaming right now.

3:22

It is blockbuster TV. I am

3:24

loving season. I know we haven't been

3:26

covering episode by episode, but

3:28

this past. Most recent episode six,

3:31

I wanna say five or six, you

3:33

know what I'm talking about and watching it. Things

3:36

have really picked up a pace and they had

3:38

some of the best on

3:40

screen fight choreography,

3:44

not necessarily large scale combat,

3:46

but a battle worthy

3:48

of Lord of the Rings. was put

3:50

on screen. And and it's climactic

3:53

ending. I'm an episode behind.

3:55

I am more skeptical of rings

3:57

of power. I haven't enjoyed it as much

3:59

as norm. so

4:01

far. It's not bad, but I haven't

4:03

been blown away by it either.

4:06

It's still much better than the hobbit. I have

4:08

not forgotten the hobbit. So,

4:10

like, I I just want to

4:12

acknowledge that, but I haven't been blown away

4:14

with the character development so far. But

4:17

right I

4:18

will take your review under advisement and

4:21

watch this later this week.

4:23

The the something I've been really pleased

4:25

about so far because it's been very

4:27

curious what Amazon

4:29

when they spent, you know, almost a billion dollars

4:31

just to buy the rights of the

4:34

appendices. of Lord of the

4:36

Rings. Right? Like, it's a very specific

4:38

line of boundaries of what they

4:40

can where they can tell the stories

4:42

in this planned five seasons

4:45

of television that they're spending hundreds

4:47

of million dollars a year

4:49

on in where they can

4:52

expound on where token

4:54

brushed over with new characters they

4:57

can introduce for

4:59

big fans of Tolkien, you know,

5:02

there's been some consternation about the

5:04

the kind of compression of of

5:06

the timeline of the second age and

5:08

and how are these characters

5:11

that you saw essentially in the prologue because

5:13

this end of the original -- Mhmm. -- Peter

5:15

Jackson Lord of the ring films, that very first

5:17

opening scene when you talk about the big battle

5:19

with humans and elves against

5:21

Sauron in his steel door, cutting off

5:23

the the fingers of Sauron. That is where

5:26

presumably this show is gonna end,

5:28

so it's all culmination of getting there.

5:30

And they've already shown Gladriel

5:33

and Elrond and Isildur and

5:35

Elendur. And

5:36

so how

5:38

can you know, they're

5:40

they're barreling toward that. And they shouldn't be taking

5:42

their time and yet the rings haven't

5:44

been forged yet. But I think the

5:46

pleasantly surprised aspect

5:48

of it is that there's

5:50

still plenty of mystery and that

5:52

they're still able to, as a

5:54

prequel, introduce

5:56

characters like at

5:58

our at our who

6:00

who who is the leader of the Orcs

6:03

and have really compelling

6:05

new characters as well as

6:08

familiar characters who have

6:10

been who who are very different, like

6:12

in Collagio and and

6:14

Elrond's case. I

6:17

think it is a incredibly gorgeous

6:19

show. And even though I'm watching

6:21

it on, you know, the biggest TV I've ever

6:23

had, my entire life at home.

6:26

It feels like it needs to be on an even bigger

6:28

screen. And I've also been

6:31

enjoying re watching episodes

6:33

in VR using the Amazon

6:35

Prime app. So big recommendation,

6:37

if you have a quest two, if you

6:39

have If if

6:42

if if if you have yeah. If you have a

6:44

desktop headset and you wanna tether it and and

6:46

get it and and find a way to stream it, That

6:48

works as well. But request to Amazon

6:50

Prime app and blow

6:52

it up. So it looks like it's an iMac

6:54

screen. it is an incredible way

6:56

to watch the show.

6:58

And this one,

7:00

the the Blackstone

7:02

black out the story so far. So

7:05

Well, you're you're talking about the the black levels

7:07

of the the the grading

7:09

because that's that was the thing that happened

7:11

over. the other prequel show House

7:13

of the Dragon in Game of Thrones,

7:15

although that's been gaining in viewership and

7:18

kind of seemingly winning the viewership.

7:20

battle between the two fantasy shows, if you wanna

7:22

call that, that had

7:25

a classic Game of Thrones. I

7:28

can play I thought it was gonna be sponsored

7:30

by, like, by LG or

7:32

Samsung for their, like, sell OLEDs. I

7:34

was like, what what an advertisement

7:37

for OLEDs that Yeah. The blacked

7:39

out scene was. They're great. I mean, I wasn't just

7:41

a scene. It was, like, half the episode was

7:43

in cover of darkness. And they shot Day for

7:45

Night, in in the same

7:47

way many

7:49

films and most famously maybe

7:51

Mad Max Fiery Road. so much of

7:53

those evening scenes. They shot in the daytime

7:55

and just graded the episodes

7:58

color error. Gamma graded

7:59

the episodes and exposure rated to

8:02

to make it look like at nighttime. One

8:04

of the telltale signs of that is

8:06

when the actors look up at the night sky,

8:09

it had to squint. at the squint

8:11

at the brightness of the moon or the stars

8:13

because they're really looking up at the sun.

8:15

And that was very evident in

8:17

these scenes. And you know what? I'll tell you, even

8:19

with my LG OLED TV, it

8:21

was too dark. It was too dark

8:23

because it's not pitch pitch black.

8:25

Black levels is not

8:28

good enough to in

8:30

the in the low range to surface some

8:32

of that shadow detail. And if

8:35

you have a TV that has some auto dimming,

8:37

for example, you're screwed. You're screwed

8:40

because yeah. Also, if

8:42

you have any of those TVs that do

8:44

the LED black backlight,

8:47

I think that also ruins

8:49

the the contrast -- Yeah. --

8:51

that you need to watch those scenes. Yeah. Or, you

8:53

know, it's the dynamic range in that

8:56

subset of the exposure

8:58

curve. but I'm showing

9:00

both of those shows and you gotta give Laura

9:02

the race a try. Most people have prime subscriptions,

9:04

you know, you got your two day shipping. And,

9:06

you know, it's worth putting on even if

9:08

you're not a big lord of the ring expand.

9:10

Just put it out there. We're also

9:12

just about one month away.

9:15

from Honda

9:16

forever. Black Panther

9:18

two. And the final

9:20

trailer. Right? Probably,

9:22

aside from TV spots, the the final

9:25

first and

9:25

final theatrical trailer. I first

9:27

one was probably considered a

9:29

teaser was released this

9:31

past week. Sure.

9:33

Have you watched it? Not gonna watch it. Not gonna

9:35

watch it. teaser trailer was

9:38

so good and -- Yeah. --

9:40

one of the better MCU trailers

9:42

ever. I was like, okay. I'm

9:44

I'm sold. Don't show me

9:46

anything else from this movie.

9:48

And then Disney

9:50

put ads everywhere. that I

9:52

tried to watch TV this week for this movie

9:54

trying to show me this trailer and I was like,

9:56

no, Disney. You will not you

9:58

will not beat me. So

10:00

I I think I've I've seen, like,

10:03

snippets of this trailer, but I'm trying

10:05

to avoid it all cause. Yeah.

10:07

Do you need to see this trailer? absolutely don't

10:09

need to see the trailer. The only thing if you are

10:11

a trailer addict and you

10:13

scrutinize every frame and

10:15

try to analyze and

10:17

that's your prerogative. I do the

10:19

same thing, subconsciously. I've done

10:21

it for work many times in the

10:23

past. If you watch that

10:25

first trailer and there was there

10:28

is a lot of speculation, we'll say, that came

10:30

out of that first trailer that was, you

10:32

know, fodder for a lot of content

10:35

creators and people writing articles about the

10:37

MCU. This trailer,

10:39

the one thing it does is it nips in

10:41

the bud some of the

10:43

wild character speculation that came out of

10:45

the first trailer. So,

10:47

no, there won't be kill monger

10:49

in a Black Panther costume.

10:51

as many people tried to stretch their

10:54

brains to believe after the first teaser.

10:56

I

10:57

the will

10:58

say the interesting thing that I

11:00

did read is somewhere, I

11:02

think it was Hollywood reporter had an interview

11:04

with Ryan Coogler where he said

11:06

he actually was just about

11:09

to quit after Chadwick Boseman's death and

11:11

that he did not wanna make this

11:13

this film because he was so

11:15

devastated by his passing. He

11:17

didn't think that

11:18

Black Panther movie could

11:21

continue without Black Panther. Yeah.

11:23

I mean, no one was was

11:25

even suggesting recasting him. But

11:27

I I thought that was just interesting

11:30

insight into just

11:32

I Ryan Cooper is an astounding

11:35

director if you haven't seen Fruitvale Station and some

11:37

of his other work. It was really

11:39

a great insight into his

11:41

process. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

11:43

The other quote I I heard from under

11:45

on the interview circuit now is

11:47

how much you want to embrace the

11:49

fun and the weirdness of superheroes.

11:51

The as serious as this

11:53

movie may be at times and

11:55

the themes that it's gonna touch, like,

11:57

it's gonna have a a character

11:59

with wings on his feet hopping

12:02

through the sky and you gotta lead

12:04

into that. of that weirdness. And as as

12:06

grounded as some of these superhero films,

12:08

as is invoked to to be

12:10

these days, you know, they can be

12:12

silly. And there can be a mix of that. And I'm really

12:14

glad he's really embracing that.

12:16

Yeah. In day more. Okay.

12:20

awful pop culture. We got a little bit of tech

12:22

to cover, and the big thing

12:25

in tech surrounds the

12:27

mind of Elon Musk. And we're gonna talk about the

12:30

AI stuff first because a lot of

12:32

stuff happened this past week. First, they had

12:34

Tesla had its AI day, it's twenty

12:36

twenty two AI day. And

12:38

this one was really

12:40

about their

12:42

prototype humanoid

12:45

robot. Not alright. I'm a person in

12:47

suit, a body type suit

12:49

as they had when they first announced

12:51

this robot, but an actual

12:53

mechanical being. But if you

12:55

watch closely and you didn't just watch, you

12:57

know, the the quick cut recaps,

12:59

it was actually

13:00

two robots. Alright.

13:02

Let's back up. AI

13:05

day is a thing Tesla does

13:07

every year. And Elon is

13:09

not shy about what AID is.

13:11

AID is a recruiting

13:14

event for Tesla. It is

13:16

about showcasing bleeding edge

13:18

technologies that Tesla is

13:20

working on to attract engineers.

13:23

Yep. Typically, young ones that work

13:25

in AI, ML electrical

13:27

engineering, whatever mechanical engineering, you can

13:29

go on down the road to come work at

13:31

Tesla. That's what it is.

13:34

don't take the projects that you see

13:36

seriously outside of a recruiting

13:38

frame. k? With that caveat,

13:41

talk about the humanoid robot. So

13:43

people are absolutely

13:46

took a giant dump on this robot.

13:48

for its limited mobility and

13:51

and motion. Let's rewind

13:53

the clock to the DARPA

13:55

robotic channel. Yes.

13:58

DRC, twenty fifteen, I

14:00

wanna say. So the most fun

14:02

Will and I ever had going to a

14:04

robotics event. Yeah.

14:06

Why don't you describe it for people that don't know

14:08

what this challenge? Yes. Yes. Since

14:10

Southern California. Yeah. So this was

14:12

a challenge that DARPA had set

14:14

up in partnership with Boston

14:16

Dynamics, where that point was still

14:18

owned by Google, if you

14:20

recall, and it was AAAA

14:23

challenge they put out to give out

14:25

the Atlas platform of q interactive

14:27

robots that Boss Dynamics has been working

14:29

on, still been working on. This is

14:31

not the this is a bipedal

14:33

robot. to universities and

14:35

research groups around the country to

14:38

see if students and engineers

14:40

could take that platform or

14:42

other platforms of their and an

14:44

accomplished series of

14:46

challenges. So that laid out

14:48

tasks very much like, you know,

14:50

drastic park. You know, the raptor

14:52

open the the door and

14:54

use a door knob and do very

14:56

basic things. And and so it's a

14:58

culmination of those efforts I don't

15:00

remember exactly how long the time

15:02

frame was to do that programming, but they

15:04

didn't necessarily have to do the

15:06

mechanical engineering. to build a

15:08

robot, it was all about software and

15:10

iteration and and creating algorithms.

15:12

So these robots not remote

15:14

controlled manually, but would

15:16

through autonomy and

15:18

software, be able to identify with computer

15:20

vision, time, and and

15:22

open and doors kind of over obstacles.

15:25

But it also was like this this like

15:27

world's fair of of

15:30

robotics because you had researchers

15:32

and roboticists from university is

15:34

demonstrating, like, prosthetic hands,

15:36

so that's where we saw the incredible,

15:38

like, neural controlled,

15:41

highly articulated, prosthetic

15:43

arm and in hand and fingers.

15:46

That's, you know, they've been done one for

15:48

a while. NASA was there with their

15:50

big like Spider Robot. Right? BOSS

15:53

Dynamics had their quadrupedal robots,

15:56

the Cheetah robots, and and this

15:58

is pre the spot robot, but, you know, running

15:59

laps, you know, doing these sprints down

16:02

essentially a racetrack or a not

16:04

a racetrack, but run a

16:08

field track run a track and field course.

16:10

And then the

16:13

best part was watching

16:15

these teams of extremely smart engineers

16:18

like biting their biting

16:21

their fingernails and and

16:24

cheering for the most mundane things

16:26

these robots could accomplish or

16:28

not accomplish. And the lessons they

16:30

learn from that, and you the

16:32

supercuts of just the comedy of

16:34

the robots. Sometimes failing,

16:37

sometimes failing spectacularly.

16:40

and occasionally succeeding with

16:42

some of the greatest just kinda

16:45

humbling experience for for

16:47

people, you know, dreaming of

16:49

a robot. integrated robot

16:51

feature. Yeah. I think it's disservice

16:53

to call the tasks that the robots

16:55

were performing mundane and

16:57

basic. because they're trying to mimic

16:59

human behavior, which is

17:01

bipedal walking manipulation

17:03

of of door handles

17:05

with with digits. So Anyone

17:08

that's that's probably talked to a roboticist or

17:10

a physicist that works in this talks

17:12

about how human walking is

17:14

incredibly complex because we're in a

17:16

constant state of falling as

17:18

we're walking, as you're you're as

17:20

you take a step, you're actually falling

17:23

forward, and that's really hard to

17:25

mimic with linear actuators

17:27

and solenoids to create that sort

17:29

of behavior.

17:31

And so these are exceptionally

17:34

complex tests that we had

17:36

I don't know, hundreds of millions

17:38

of years to develop -- Yep.

17:40

-- and these people are trying to do it

17:42

in, like, in ten. And so

17:44

we're spoiled by Boston Dynamics, you know,

17:46

viral video showcasing this. But

17:49

what I think is important about what you mentioned

17:51

about the DARPA challenge they built

17:53

a platform for to

17:56

experiment in these kinds of range of

17:58

motions. And that's what we saw in

18:00

display with Optimus. at

18:02

Tesla. They built a

18:04

platform, and they showed a software

18:06

platform that was trying to control.

18:08

Lots of actuators working

18:10

in concerted motion performing complex

18:13

tasks that just a a

18:15

singular group, a small group of

18:17

actuators wouldn't be able to do on their

18:19

own. And so, yeah, you can hate

18:21

on the fact that this thing could barely walk,

18:23

and they talked about how it

18:25

had trouble. This was one of the first times

18:27

it's ever been off Tethr. I'm

18:29

a I was actually not surprised. I found it

18:31

kind of impressive. It's not a huge

18:34

iteration from what we saw at the

18:36

DARPA robotics challenge, and it

18:38

certainly feels a backward step

18:40

from where Boston Dynamics

18:42

has been in terms of some of their

18:44

balance and motion, but this is about

18:46

the and the

18:48

and the use of those actuators together.

18:50

So I was like, oh, cool. And

18:52

and we gotta also be Actually, there's a reasonable

18:54

reaction to that to that debut?

18:57

Yes. But but I think I think there's a lot

18:59

of people sharing the wrong videos about the

19:01

wrong robots because the development

19:04

platform was the one that performed optimally

19:06

for the demonstration purposes where you

19:08

-- Yeah. -- saw the Tesla film

19:10

because journalists didn't get to actually interact

19:13

and see They they saw was on stage and were shared with

19:15

videos. And the robot

19:17

that was chewing the the the

19:19

pouring of the the water, watering the

19:21

plants, and operating, you know, in all

19:23

the the the fancy, like, smooth

19:25

ways. That was a Tethr robot. That was

19:27

a development platform that they rolled

19:29

on stage. They did also

19:31

show the standalone version,

19:33

which is a form factor, very similar

19:35

form factor, but what they would hope be would

19:37

be closer to the shipping

19:40

eventual, they say, a shipping

19:42

product. And that was

19:44

very rough. You know, that one

19:46

required multiple handlers just to get

19:48

it balanced and look like it was gonna tip

19:50

over anytime. So, you know,

19:52

this that product ain't shipping. No. No.

19:54

No. Thank you. Sure. Sure. And and they said, you

19:56

know, there there's, like, these

19:58

are early demos, and

20:00

I'm never gonna doubt how

20:02

or underestimate how fast

20:05

development can happen with software. Right? You know,

20:07

if if the hardware sound, the platform will sound, you know,

20:09

we know that the the hockey

20:12

stick and and improvements is

20:14

could be very close, you

20:17

know, not not too far away. But

20:19

what they're demonstrating is

20:23

lot of learnings that they would have. Lot of

20:25

the efficiencies from the learnings they would have from the car

20:27

stuff, including the SoC that

20:29

they developed -- Yeah. -- and the processing board for

20:31

the brain. the battery packs,

20:33

that interoperability allows

20:36

them to to make this not a

20:38

completely new venture. But

20:40

you're also gonna take a step back and, like, what what's the end goal

20:42

of this? Right? If even if they're able to get this

20:44

-- Yeah. -- a standalone robot. So work

20:47

optimally talking about taking menial

20:50

jobs in factories. Like, what's

20:52

the point of this in the humanoid form?

20:55

So the only person that's gonna order this

20:57

is the same person that's gonna take their

20:59

cyber tuck in a river. It's like it's

21:01

not like a real thing. what

21:05

I do think is interesting

21:07

about a humanoid robot, and I thought

21:10

projections like it come come in at like

21:12

twenty k. for a robot like this.

21:14

What is interesting is

21:16

that them pursuing this

21:19

and the kind

21:21

of targeted approach to

21:23

some of these battery packs and actuators could

21:25

drive the price down of those

21:27

things. And so the 20k is interesting,

21:30

only for me, from an economic standpoint. You

21:32

drive down the cost of

21:34

those parts. That's a core

21:36

component of some elements

21:38

of the car that they're that they're working

21:40

on. So maybe this has some

21:43

knock on effect. There's

21:45

no robot what

21:47

can be used for anything? A hard boiled

21:49

egg, two hard boiled eggs on this

21:51

podcast, and I hate hard boiled eggs. I

21:53

hate them. I hate them if

21:56

Tesla sells if

21:59

people are able to buy for twenty

22:01

thousand dollars this robot.

22:03

they're not gonna ever sell the robot. They

22:06

will open preorders for you

22:08

because preorders are interest

22:10

free loans. to That's that's true. That's

22:12

true. That's right. That's right. And and

22:14

maybe maybe a twenty k will be a model. It'll be

22:16

the, you know, the the operate for thirty

22:18

minutes model that they'll never sell. and

22:20

the the the premium model that they'll release

22:22

will be fifty k to start. No

22:24

government subsidies for robots.

22:26

Yeah. Yeah. Driving down the price. Well, speaking

22:28

of driving down the price, That's

22:31

what Elon Musk is unable to do

22:33

with these is attempted by

22:35

Twitter, but it

22:37

sounds like he's back on board. He's

22:39

he's recommitting to the full

22:41

stock price because it sounds like he probably would not

22:43

have won that lawsuit in

22:46

Delaware. And he's

22:48

he's back on board full commitment to purchase

22:50

Twitter. Everything that's old is new

22:52

again. What's going on here? No

22:54

kidding. When you sign paperwork to say I'll buy

22:56

it at this price and then try

22:58

to back out of that contract, somehow the

23:00

courts aren't with you. Like, that's not

23:03

surprising at all. I

23:04

guess

23:05

what and, like, I don't

23:07

know what to make of this. I remember the

23:09

last time we talked about it, so I was

23:11

like, is this gonna be real?

23:14

Let's wait. And, like, that was my, like,

23:16

general approach to the story

23:18

because it's, like, like, there's parts of

23:20

the story that don't make sense. And I

23:22

feel, like, there's

23:24

more parts of the story that makes sense

23:26

now, but there's still a lot that

23:28

doesn't make sense. So I'm

23:30

probably gonna wait. Like, it seems

23:32

much more realistic. that he's going to buy

23:35

it now. And there's a realistic

23:37

path for him to finance this. It's

23:39

gonna cost him a lot of

23:41

Tesla stock. but the projections on Tesla

23:43

stock are positive

23:45

going into next year with their continued

23:47

dominance in the EV market and now

23:50

with the US based

23:52

legislation passing is only gonna

23:54

increase the the potential demand

23:56

even though Tesla missed their third

23:58

quarter sales numbers. So

24:01

I like, I see a pathway

24:03

now, which I didn't. Last time

24:05

we talked about this. But if

24:08

you're asking me why, I have

24:10

no idea. Like, it still doesn't

24:12

make rational sense to be why he would

24:14

want Twitter. Twitter's

24:16

getting worse as a product

24:18

is the thing. I feel

24:20

like it's been stagnant

24:24

for a little while in, like,

24:26

Twitter I I thought it was on an improving

24:28

trend for a little while, but then, like,

24:30

Twitter Blue and then spaces

24:33

got weird and this tweet

24:35

edit stuff. It's all just been very confusing about what

24:37

their direction is. And

24:40

in one nod to what he's saying,

24:42

I have had many more interactions

24:45

with spots in recent months than I did before, and I

24:47

didn't know what that was about.

24:49

And so I'm kinda like,

24:51

I don't see what the future of this

24:53

platform is to begin with. bot

24:55

army

24:55

versus bot army,

24:57

digital bots

24:58

versus his army of of Optimus

25:01

bots. And you may maybe distracting

25:04

for the new cycle. You know, he got ratioed

25:06

so hard by Zelensky that

25:08

he wants the that he he's

25:10

he's back to buying Twitter. we need some charts

25:12

and graphs. If we add the budget, we put some charts and

25:14

graph stuff, some things of trends and fads

25:16

that that could go nowhere.

25:18

And right now, the stock

25:21

on on on Elon buying

25:23

Twitter as a thing that's

25:25

gonna happen has gone back up while

25:27

NFTs have gone down, and

25:30

AIR is skyrocketing.

25:32

So as as a real thing,

25:35

not Juri's still out

25:35

on on humanoid robots between

25:38

Tesla and Boston Dynamics.

25:41

Hey, everyone, Norm here.

25:41

I wanna let you know that this week's episode of this

25:44

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with support from mint

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test. Now back to the

27:29

show. Twitter is also a place

27:32

as relevant as as not relevant as

27:34

it may be for so many people. It's also a

27:36

place that I learn about things

27:38

that I didn't know existed.

27:41

And nothing made me feel

27:43

like nothing made me feel one

27:45

so old. And two,

27:48

believe for a a fraction

27:50

of a second, for for point zero

27:52

seven seconds, an an

27:54

eternity for an android, that we could be living in a

27:56

simulation, then learning

28:01

who dream was

28:03

this past week and

28:05

not knowing who the try guys really were

28:07

this week until that became a thing. Now we're

28:09

not gonna dive into what

28:12

happened with with those things, those

28:14

people and and all

28:16

the the Internet drama. But

28:19

nothing made me realize how insular

28:21

the Internet may be. And even I'm even though

28:23

I'm online online on Twitter

28:25

every day, more than I should probably

28:28

should be, because of who

28:30

I follow, because of the communities that

28:32

I'm I'm a part

28:34

of, and I and I've track

28:36

and follow, I'm just completely

28:38

unaware of entire ecosystems

28:40

of the Internet like,

28:42

for example, the Minecraft

28:46

YouTube community.

28:47

Alright. So I have

28:49

a tween, early tween as

28:51

he likes to call it. So I

28:53

have who likes YouTube a lot, and

28:55

so I've been educated on this. And

28:57

he even says himself that he's behind

28:59

the curve. But

29:01

the

29:02

couple years ago, he was into dream

29:05

because, you know, in Minecraft YouTuber and,

29:07

like, that was, like, a popular thing

29:09

watching him. playing Minecraft and there was, like, a

29:11

schtick associated to him.

29:13

But, like, dream wasn't

29:15

cool for hasn't

29:17

been cool for a while. This is how my eleven year

29:19

old explained to me. Like, my eleven

29:21

year old like, we we

29:23

went to a live dude perfect show, and I was

29:25

like, these guys are are so popular.

29:27

And, like, the other day who's, like, they're not it

29:29

it's kinda they've been over the hill for

29:31

a while. And I

29:34

was, like, So who's

29:36

popular? Miss Mark Rober, and he's like,

29:38

no. Mark Rober still gets

29:40

views, but he's not as cool and that

29:42

that hurt personally. hearing Mark Rover

29:44

was was over, then I was, like, oh, so

29:46

is it, like, mister Beast and, like,

29:48

the Beast Burgers and stuff?

29:50

He's, like, no, mister Beast

29:52

is kinda old. Like, I accept

29:54

and these are people that are still racking up

29:56

views, but you're talking about growth.

29:59

Right? And so I

30:01

feel I thought I

30:03

was on the curb and I was like, I don't know

30:05

who any of these people were talking

30:07

about now. And I felt like I

30:09

knew. I was like, I I

30:11

introduced my son to

30:13

to Mark Rover once, like,

30:15

in person. And I think I

30:17

had mentioned this on the podcast. The

30:20

glitter bomb two point o

30:22

was on my porch. Yeah.

30:24

What point? Yep. Yep. And I was like, I'm

30:26

gonna forever be famous to my

30:28

son. Now it's like, nope.

30:30

Not cool. No. So

30:33

tell us who's actually cool

30:35

on YouTube right now because

30:38

-- You know, we're not. -- we're we're

30:40

absolutely not. Yeah. We're like

30:42

I said, nothing has made me feel older or

30:44

in more need from my advice from

30:46

AAA twin or a teenager.

30:48

And one day, I will have

30:50

that twin He's still

30:52

incubating right now. He's only barely got

30:54

even four years old. But when he

30:56

gets to ten and eleven, I'll be

30:58

able to tap him as a resource. find

31:00

out who's cool. I will

31:02

tell you the thing that I like the

31:04

most on YouTube right now is

31:06

a I hate say a reaction

31:08

video, but it's a guy that yells

31:10

at five minute craft videos. Be

31:12

like, what are you doing? Five minute craft

31:14

videos or the bane of existence

31:17

They're the bane of the maker community, and he

31:19

just reacts and yells at, like, what

31:21

are you doing? Why are you getting that

31:23

tool? Why didn't you just spend a

31:26

dollar did get this thing. Yeah.

31:28

That's right. I think one of my favorite

31:30

read, it's is DIY, WHY

31:33

and it's essentially that. And

31:35

It's a reactionary

31:39

reactionary subreddit based on a lot of

31:41

the TikToks that have

31:43

to be kind of, like,

31:45

are there a statistical, in nature,

31:47

in spoofing, like,

31:49

craft projects or they're doing

31:51

it on purpose? to generate virtual

31:54

and and reactions, you know,

31:56

making things poorly or making things

31:58

with no real reason

31:59

why they would go, you know, make use

32:02

one material or another or a crowd

32:04

project that seemingly is is really

32:06

or novel use, but is

32:08

kind of not really. But there are

32:11

there is this whole segment of people that have

32:14

monetized the like,

32:16

really wrap their head around. the

32:18

YouTube algorithm. Dream is one of those

32:20

people, but, like, so many people have

32:22

monetized, like, the algorithm tracking,

32:24

like, YouTube drama, Trish Patis

32:27

is, like, one of those that my son told me

32:29

about. But, like,

32:31

the try guys this week with

32:33

their, like, kicking their

32:35

they're one of their cofounders out and then

32:38

this, like, pretty earnest

32:40

apology from their the

32:42

remaining three, but that was

32:44

everywhere this week. And it but

32:46

it was, like, part of the strategy

32:48

to release the apology video.

32:50

I mean, there there are the trends of, like, that

32:52

I'm done with YouTube. Right? Every

32:54

every Uber goes to the phase of, like,

32:57

uh-oh, like, you it's there's

32:59

there's some type of trough of the

33:01

disillusionment curve that that

33:03

they can turn to content, or surprise announcement,

33:06

or I have announcement, or I'm done,

33:08

and I quit, or I'm back, you know, there's that

33:10

these are these are all very classic

33:13

classically proven thumbnails

33:15

and titles. And I think it was mister

33:17

Vese who did a panel this

33:19

past began or two weekends

33:21

ago at at a convention talking about how he

33:23

has a team of six people.

33:25

Maybe not not their full time jobs, but

33:27

six people on his team devoted to

33:29

making YouTube thumbnails. and they

33:31

create the thumbnails and the

33:34

title of the video before they film the

33:36

video because it's all reverse

33:38

engineered for the highest amount

33:40

of clickability. This show would have done a lot

33:42

better if we just did the thumbnails. Here

33:44

we go. Here we go.

33:46

There. There's the YouTube thumbnail

33:49

clip. react. Podcasters

33:52

react. There you go. Kishore, let's

33:54

get you reacting to, well,

33:56

tomorrow or today's people's other things

33:58

this. Google Pixel seven

34:00

events, the made by Google events. What's

34:02

going on? So

34:05

Pixel seven will be announced There's

34:07

been some, like, reported rumors around

34:09

the internal specs. Long story short

34:11

about the internal specs of the phone is

34:13

no one expects a

34:16

huge leap in performance from where the six

34:18

was last year. Probably very

34:20

similar memory. Probably,

34:22

you know, small iterations

34:24

on camera and processor.

34:27

I think the big news that will

34:29

come out is whether they

34:31

maintain the same price point as last year would would

34:33

make it essentially the discounted

34:36

premium phone on

34:38

the market. but most

34:40

interested in the watch.

34:43

This is the

34:45

first pixel watch. It promises,

34:48

knock on wood, Fitbit integration,

34:50

a company Google bought

34:52

year or two ago. So

34:54

I think Fitbits exercise software should be embedded

34:57

on this. It's a it's

34:59

a round look in contrast to

35:01

where the Apple Watch is. I

35:05

think they're going to showcase some more seamless

35:07

functionality with the Pixel

35:10

seven, where OS has

35:12

always been. awful.

35:14

Just

35:15

awful. And so It's

35:17

it's funny because Apple

35:20

with Apple Oh, yeah. The the Apple Watch software has iterated

35:22

every year and kind

35:24

of identified fitness as the

35:26

thing that people were buying the

35:28

Apple watches. for.

35:30

And it wasn't all using, you know, the app version.

35:32

Like, the the watch version of every app

35:34

you have on your phone. Like like,

35:37

app development on watches has kinda,

35:39

I think, really slowed down.

35:42

But for Wear OS, Wear

35:44

OS two, had been on, like, every

35:46

single third party watch the same hardware, maybe new form factors,

35:48

and maybe a new display where there

35:50

would be more full bezel

35:53

bezel less display, circular as

35:56

possible, but it was the same hardware and

35:58

where it was

35:59

to forever. And where OS where

36:02

OS three they announced that, like, two years ago? Like

36:04

Yeah. Last year, twenty twenty one.

36:05

Yeah. So,

36:08

you know, I

36:10

look at the renders that Google

36:13

shared of the pixel watch

36:15

and it's such a different

36:17

looking watch than the

36:20

rugged device that Apple announced with the Apple Watch Ultra that

36:22

they are charging eight hundred dollars

36:25

for. Is you think this is gonna

36:27

be more for the every person? I

36:29

think this is this is gonna promise sleeker

36:32

and the only things that out of their mouth are

36:34

gonna be the words exercise

36:36

and fitness. throughout this

36:38

presentation. I think they're

36:40

gonna struggle coming at a price point. I

36:42

mean, they'll obviously beat the price point

36:44

on the ultra that was, like, eight hundred bucks. Eight hundred bucks.

36:46

Yeah. Yeah. I don't think they're gonna be able

36:49

to undercut the price of the watch,

36:51

which I think is what? Like, three

36:53

hundred or four hundred? four hundred three hundred

36:55

or four hundred bucks on the high end. Right. Right. Right. That If you get the SE

36:57

or the cellular and whatnot, I think

36:59

Google's gonna be probably in a

37:01

very similar position. So

37:04

I think they're just gonna talk about fitness

37:07

integration with with

37:10

all the fitbit

37:12

stuff, and so just try to move people

37:14

from that ecosystem over. I'll

37:16

be interested if they, like, pull

37:19

in lessons from Bixby that

37:21

Samsung developed and and bringing over those tools

37:24

over. I'm also curious if we're

37:26

gonna hear much

37:28

more about tensor on

37:30

a chip, which was a core part

37:32

of the Pixel six launch

37:34

and we heard about it IO if

37:37

that's gonna be part of the watch or if they had to go with

37:39

a different chip altogether. Well, though it's

37:41

funny or what's interesting

37:43

to me about the wearable market

37:45

is before we had smartwatches be the things that

37:48

people spent two fifty

37:50

to four hundred to eight hundred dollars

37:54

on as as a sometimes a fashion statement, as a

37:56

status symbol, you know,

37:58

a lot of people

37:59

who never

38:02

really wore more

38:03

watch people, right, quote unquote,

38:05

watch people, bought a watch that they'd

38:07

like, like, you know, your your casino or

38:09

your watch or something that just look cool.

38:12

It sort of functioned as they make it

38:14

it was something that you could, you know, check

38:16

your time on no matter where you were and and

38:18

not need to run on batteries. but also bought

38:20

maybe multiple watches that were that that you would change up.

38:23

Like, if your watch was a a fashion statement

38:25

or something that was an accessory

38:27

to your outfit, you

38:30

the entire watch. And the success that Apple's had

38:32

with Apple Watch is they've made

38:34

the the the the the watch

38:37

itself, the uniformity of

38:40

that singular design, the shared design

38:42

as the status symbol.

38:44

And the personalization, it

38:47

wasn't about switching watches, it was

38:49

about switching bands. And

38:52

you didn't have people that I

38:54

knew previously spending five hundred dollars

38:56

on a watch and switching bands, people

38:58

would spend five hundred dollars on a watch

39:00

if they're a watch person or more and another five

39:02

hundred or another one thousand dollars on watch

39:05

and switch entire watches. And

39:07

it doesn't seem like Google

39:10

has has understood that or

39:12

is is understands

39:14

the power of the brand

39:17

recognition and the power

39:19

of the the the the

39:21

the watch itself being the

39:24

status device and the

39:26

band being the customization, the personalization. They've never

39:28

treated their watches in the past as a fashion

39:30

device, which is what

39:32

watches are to a certain extent.

39:34

But frankly, the

39:36

previous, like, very, like,

39:39

Google centric watches just didn't work.

39:41

Like, they couldn't do basic things

39:43

like maintain connection to

39:45

the phone consistently. And, like, with that

39:47

kind of ecosystem where it doesn't

39:50

just work, you can't

39:52

even talk about fashion and all

39:54

that kind of stuff because you won't get over the

39:56

home. Now that they're using a

39:58

Fitbit platform, which is more

39:59

stable and much more

40:02

user friendly, maybe this is the time to basically be here's

40:04

our bands by Nike or Adidas

40:06

or whatever. Right. Right. And

40:10

here comes in gold, silver, and gray, or

40:13

whatever. You know, that's when we'll see

40:15

them pivot towards that.

40:18

But Apple has matured that. All they have to do is copy it.

40:20

And and they haven't copied

40:22

it. They haven't copied the band strategy.

40:26

and they don't have you know, it doesn't seem like they

40:28

have a a sign a

40:30

strong branding in the pixel world for

40:32

for this mass market. statement,

40:36

like like the way that, you

40:38

know, we know AirPods and even

40:40

iPhones and and and MacBooks are. And

40:42

I think it's foolish for any company to try to release

40:44

a mass market product solely on the

40:46

value of utility that they have

40:49

to be aware of the

40:52

power of branding and the

40:54

power of the fashion

40:56

statement or the identity statement

40:58

that that device has. which is something that, you

41:00

know, that's why Apple bought beats

41:02

is because that that was a device

41:04

purely on identity and

41:06

about the iconography of of

41:09

the device more so than the performance. Performance

41:12

just need to meet kind of a base

41:14

level of of of

41:16

good enough.

41:18

But we'll be keeping an eye on that. And also, oh, is

41:21

it today? No. Not today

41:23

as recording this, but today as you're

41:25

listening to this, you'll

41:28

probably have Watch the Super Mario trailer.

41:30

I've rather mentioned in pop

41:32

culture, Nintendo Direct

41:34

solely on

41:38

the illumination animated Mario

41:40

trailer, what will Mario look

41:42

like? Now if you've been on Twitter or you've

41:44

followed social media, you may have seen

41:46

that an image of Mario has leaked

41:50

courtesy of a McDonald's ad posted

41:52

on Discord. And

41:54

Mario, the the the biggest differences,

41:57

he has a collar. His red

41:59

shirt has

41:59

a

42:01

collar now. And

42:02

the detail on the the render of

42:04

his, you know, you see all the stitching, on his

42:07

overalls and his his his white gloves, the

42:09

cuffs are not a solid band. They

42:11

have a little cup in

42:13

the band. Yeah. like I said,

42:15

the the illumination and animators had to make it a little bit

42:17

their own. I get we're all waiting really to see

42:19

the trailer for the voice. And will will it

42:22

sound -- Yeah. -- like

42:24

Chris Pratt? I am it'd be not excited to hear

42:26

the question.

42:28

One thing that Google has

42:30

been had an app on is

42:33

of course, USB c on their phones.

42:36

And the big USB c news

42:38

this week was the EU

42:40

ruling that by twenty twenty

42:42

five Apple will have

42:44

to support USB C on

42:46

iPhones sold in the EU. So whether

42:48

that's Apple being stubborn

42:50

and say, he will include a

42:52

lightning to USB c dongle in

42:54

every phone. I don't know if that's gonna be

42:56

sufficient. That

42:58

would suck. This is also on laptops. They're gonna

43:00

have to have USB charging too. Right? Yeah.

43:02

But they do. They do all all the MacBooks.

43:04

Right. Right.

43:06

So But all the other makers are gonna have to switch to

43:08

USB c charging too. And

43:10

USB c is powerful enough. You can get enough

43:12

wattage and, you know, voltage and amperage through that

43:15

that you can charge very quickly on this standard

43:18

capacity thinnoid laptops.

43:21

It may be

43:23

moot because anticipating a big iPhone

43:25

redesign and they could

43:28

like what the iPad switch over to

43:30

USB C. So, you know, they

43:32

they have experience with our

43:34

hardware for over four years

43:36

now with the

43:38

iPad Pros. and it would be about time because it's not about how fast the

43:40

charger's not even about the ubiquity. It's

43:42

about this the terrible

43:44

data connection speeds. And I

43:46

swear Apple

43:48

keeps lightning slow because

43:50

they believe in a maybe it's a purely wireless

43:52

phone like we've speculated over the years.

43:55

and that would, you know what, a purely wireless phone

43:58

would would solve the problem of

43:59

the the thing that I

44:01

cannot not

44:03

see anymore. on the

44:06

iPhone fourteen. If you look at the bottom of

44:08

an iPhone fourteen controller, do you have an iPhone

44:10

fourteen, bro? No. I have a thirteen, and

44:12

now I'm gonna look at this. If you look at this, one of

44:14

the things that Apple has prided

44:16

itself on really is

44:18

is industrial design and their

44:21

attention to detail doing things, going the extra

44:24

mile in terms of the

44:26

manufacturing tolerances and the

44:28

build quality and just

44:30

the the

44:32

perfect visual satisfaction, subconsciously

44:34

how it can be pleasing to hold

44:36

and use one of their devices and

44:38

their phones. And one of the ways

44:42

that people previously called that out was if you

44:44

look at the bottom of an

44:46

Android phone where the USB port was

44:48

and compare it to the bottom of

44:50

an iPhone, where the lighting port

44:52

is, the lighting port has always

44:54

been center aligned. If

44:56

you look at it, it was not

44:58

really centered left and right, it was centered, top and

45:00

down. Perfectly centered, which is

45:02

not easy from an

45:04

engineering standpoint. famously,

45:06

for example, the iPhone XR, the

45:09

ten R0I have a ten r

45:11

right here. Oh, yeah. If you look,

45:13

the ten r was

45:16

misaligned with the screws and it

45:18

bugged people to no end. Do you see that

45:20

lighting port and how the two little

45:22

screw holes next to it are

45:24

all set? Yeah. Yeah.

45:26

That was a big controversy. And So

45:28

I kind of excused that because it

45:31

was a LCD screen on this

45:33

bezel list, you know, the ten

45:36

design style and they had to put

45:38

the control the port and the

45:40

controller underneath the LCD

45:42

panel, which Otherwise, you would have, like, a a

45:44

chin on the phone as you would call it.

45:46

And so some people excuse them there. I did

45:48

not excuse

45:50

them. but I always look to the

45:52

pro models as no compromise indeed. And it wasn't until

45:54

a week and a half, two weeks after I

45:56

got iPhone fourteen in the

45:59

mail. And having dinner, I stared at it. It's

46:02

something looked off

46:02

to me. I stared. I neglected

46:05

my children's dinner, and I steered

46:07

at this phone, and I had to walk away from

46:09

the table, go to my office, and pull up

46:11

my pair of mid to o

46:14

calipers. And

46:16

I measured and it is

46:18

the the lightning port is about a

46:20

fifth of a

46:22

the

46:23

millimeter off center. the

46:25

center from top to bottom. It is

46:27

That's Big a huge amount

46:30

for Apple. A fifth of it it is

46:32

something I

46:34

cannot unsee And if you have a

46:36

fourteen and you look at your phone right now, I hope you can't see it anymore. You must suffer along

46:40

with me. Literally

46:42

unusable. Sure. Literally unusable. Come

46:45

on. I missed Norm's

46:47

OCD. That's good. goodness.

46:50

Oh. Oh. It was more satisfying that

46:52

when I actually measured it, I'd rather I

46:54

was not going insane. I wasn't

46:56

seeing things. I was like, the tolerances couldn't

46:58

be wrong. And when I saw

47:00

that it was three millimeters from bottom

47:02

to center and yet three point

47:06

two millimeters, from center to

47:08

top,

47:08

that was validated. Alright.

47:10

Last couple of things. Before

47:12

we talk about some

47:16

VR because we have Connect coming up

47:18

next week, an update, a correction to the Bruce Willis deep

47:20

fake story that not only

47:22

we talked about, but the entire Internet

47:26

talked about last week, the Deepak

47:28

studio that announced that

47:30

they had the

47:32

rights to

47:34

Bruce Willis' digital twin for use in commercial

47:37

products was maybe

47:40

not entirely

47:42

truthful in how they were talking about their relationship

47:45

with Bruce Willis. Because Bruce

47:47

Willis' representatives had corrected

47:49

them and said no, they

47:52

do not have the rights. That

47:54

deep cake, the

47:55

company, did produce, yes, a

47:58

deep fake generated representation of

47:59

Bruce Wells for a Russian

48:02

commercial, but it is not they do not have the

48:04

sole rights and exclusive

48:06

rights to

48:07

that. It's only time. That is a

48:09

pretty significant change

48:12

where they basically, like,

48:14

no, this

48:15

is not true. in the

48:17

deep case, like, yeah. But we have, like, an arrangement. Wow.

48:24

Tech

48:24

Pro is gonna Tech Pro. I know. That is that is

48:26

paying fast and loose with the we

48:28

have rights to this language. Yeah.

48:32

Yeah.

48:32

Alright. We're gonna

48:34

wrap up with by talking about some

48:36

VR. We are one week away

48:40

from MetoQuest Connect. Meto Connect.

48:42

What is it now? Connect. I'm gonna call

48:44

it Connect or expect the

48:48

new Quest Pro

48:50

let's call it the press quest

48:51

pro project Cambria to be

48:54

fully unveiled

48:57

it'll be a virtual conference, but it won't just be

48:59

this the metaverse talk

49:01

that we saw last year's connect

49:03

with the big name change of the

49:06

company that we're gonna see real hardware. And

49:08

the kind of the the videos

49:10

that the blurry blurry videos that

49:13

you know, Zuckerberg has shared in Ts of

49:16

the of the headset and in some of the

49:18

applications and some of the the other leak

49:20

stuff that has come out. really indicates

49:22

that the pass through

49:24

a pass through AR is

49:26

gonna be the the big selling

49:28

point of this device.

49:30

That's not a VR device, and even if

49:32

it has all backward compatibility

49:34

with existing quest library,

49:36

that it's gonna be a whole new suite of

49:40

pass through AR experiences from

49:42

meetings to entertainment to

49:44

games. And one of the clips they

49:46

showed was, if you suffer from doing a

49:48

a virtual remote

49:50

fencing game segment with a championship

49:53

fencing or Olympic what

49:56

do you call them? Fencer? Mhmm.

49:59

Yeah. Fencer. Yeah. That's the word.

50:02

And that speaks maybe

50:04

the latency being up

50:07

to up to par, which

50:08

would be a big question of ours.

50:10

With pass through ARR, what the

50:12

latency is like, what the obviously, you

50:14

get full opacity. But anyone who's

50:17

seen who's used the quest to lately with all the software

50:19

updates and seen how well it does

50:22

just the slam tracking

50:24

and and just

50:25

with the four cameras that are on it

50:28

now, there's no reason

50:30

not to believe. Even if it uses the same

50:32

Snapdragon XR

50:34

two processor, that has enough to

50:36

get all the visual data and

50:38

then render on top of that, especially

50:42

if the pass through video is on its own separate pipeline and

50:44

is color and is it is comfortable

50:47

enough, then theoretically, it would

50:49

have to render less

50:52

in terms of graphics on

50:55

the the the

50:59

the the holograms that would

51:01

overlay on top of the pass through, which is maybe how

51:03

they get how they get it

51:05

working on that existing processor.

51:08

I know the focus is gonna

51:11

be on the hardware, particularly the

51:13

the pass through AR. But

51:15

this is ostensibly

51:18

like enterprise

51:19

product. Let's just call it -- Yeah. -- developer product.

51:22

Oh, it's expensive. Right? Yeah.

51:24

That's that's our way of saying we we think it's

51:27

gonna be expensive. I I think we know it's gonna

51:29

be expensive. But I think

51:32

the thing that I'll be curious

51:34

about is We've

51:36

seen hints of them building out

51:38

tools for digital sales in

51:42

the marketplace. How is that going to

51:44

continue? How are they going to use that

51:46

to monetize developers

51:48

being staying in the space

51:50

long term? Because I I don't think they

51:53

can subsidize developers just building

51:55

stuff forever for the for

51:57

the platform. So I'm

51:59

curious about that. John

52:02

Carmack.

52:02

What's he gonna talk about? Oh,

52:04

yeah.

52:04

You'll have another, you know, unfiltered session.

52:08

The all expectations are that this will

52:10

be even though it's an ARR product, it's not

52:12

to replace the quest two that -- No.

52:15

-- you've been plenty of soft ware

52:17

and plenty of lifespan left on the quest

52:20

two. Although, we did see, you

52:22

know, some leaks about a

52:24

potential quest

52:26

three, which don't know if

52:28

they would mention that at all. Like, the

52:30

difficulty in the messaging

52:32

will be sending

52:34

the expectation about Project Cambria, who the target market

52:36

is for Project Cambria. Because

52:39

their target audience

52:42

is gonna be twofold. The target audience is actually gonna be well,

52:45

we'll we'll save we'll

52:47

save fourfold. Now

52:50

target audience One is

52:52

investors. Investors to say

52:54

that the money they've put into

52:56

AR and VR as

52:58

the future of met as

53:01

a company is gonna pay it for, one, with

53:03

a high average selling price

53:05

device, IASP device that they can make

53:07

money on because they

53:10

don't

53:10

make money on Quest two. Like, they

53:12

they heavily subsidized. Two,

53:15

this

53:15

other audience

53:17

was tied to that, is

53:19

the enterprise customers that they make us appealing to people who

53:21

would otherwise be spending thirty five

53:23

hundred dollars on magically

53:26

two or working

53:28

with HoloLens and using and and one and

53:30

then based on their market research with

53:32

those customers that there is an

53:34

appetite and a hunger in the

53:37

trading world in the collaboration software world

53:40

in all these places that it's

53:42

not gaming and not home

53:44

use that people Not exercising. Yeah. Not exercising that there's

53:46

gonna be not only an appetite, but the

53:48

budgets are there to buy

53:50

business and enterprise headsets

53:52

on mass. if

53:54

they satisfy these investors and convincing them that they

53:57

have a solid footing there and

53:59

the enterprise

53:59

customers and convincing

54:02

them they a best in class product that

54:04

price. That's really all I

54:06

think

54:06

Meta's gonna care about next week.

54:09

really. But what people like you and I are gonna care about

54:11

are the latter two

54:14

audiences. One, the VR

54:16

enthusiasts who

54:18

regardless of pricing, are going to be interested in the technology and

54:20

they're going to be a significant number

54:23

of people who might want

54:25

to just drop if it's a

54:27

thousand dollars, whatever plus,

54:30

then the next hottest, you

54:32

know, AR device

54:34

out there, and it need for them, they're gonna have a

54:36

higher standard of of

54:42

of just comfort and use I would say even more so than

54:44

enterprise customers because these the VR

54:46

enthusiasts are maybe more discerning and more

54:48

particular if they're gonna wanna

54:50

use this on a as

54:52

a as a fun hobbyist device, and Meta's gonna have to have

54:54

partnerships to have games, you know, AR

54:56

games like the fencing game or whatever

54:58

it is. satisfy

55:00

that that crowd. And

55:02

then there's gonna be the mass

55:04

market audience,

55:05

the people who the people

55:07

who are who think

55:09

you'll buy in quest two this holiday, who if

55:11

you have a quest two, the

55:13

casual gamers, people who are maybe looking to

55:15

buy a PSVR two right next year. We'll

55:17

have PSVR one. and they need

55:20

to understand potentially this

55:22

is not a device for them because

55:24

that would be theoretically

55:26

quest three. but also not be turned

55:27

off by the pricing. So it's a huge

55:29

messaging battle for them on a device

55:31

that is while on

55:34

the same kind

55:36

of track and progression

55:38

of getting us to full

55:40

AR is a very feels

55:43

like it could be a very different device than

55:45

the Quest two. I have

55:46

to say the only thing that really

55:48

surprised me is that the event isn't

55:50

in person. I thought for

55:52

sure given the stakes, they wouldn't have

55:55

it be in person to get

55:57

morris or buzz in the room.

55:59

People

55:59

in

55:59

headsets. Right? Like, get people

56:02

in headsets. I yeah. I I think about the time when

56:04

they ran it out and and the way they had

56:06

the the first the

56:08

first quest. announcement.

56:08

The first question announcement, when they had the the

56:10

tennis court set up at the San Jose Convention

56:12

Center and all these stand alone, demos

56:15

and people in quest headsets.

56:18

It was such a groundbreaking

56:20

thing to have convincing

56:24

Tethrless VR running off of a

56:26

multiple headset because at that

56:28

point, the unproven thing was inside out

56:30

tracking and

56:32

performance and Fidelity on a mobile headset, and they didn't

56:34

have AirLink, but also then link quality

56:36

plugged into a a gaming PC

56:39

as well. And I think they quest

56:42

having people having

56:43

hundreds, you know, of people in

56:45

quest headsets over that

56:47

weekend was really, really powerful in getting the word

56:50

out. And the fact that they're not gonna

56:52

have that, you know,

56:54

to to to VR enthusiasts, to

56:56

enterprise customers, essentially, it's a

56:58

journalist at an in person

57:00

event. It's kind of a

57:02

bummer.

57:02

It's a bummer for me, at least, for sure.

57:04

Yeah. yeah I mentioned

57:06

PSVR. Oh, well, the other thing

57:09

came out is side quest. So one

57:11

unknown is regardless of what the

57:13

device will be. We hope that there will

57:15

be continued support for side loading,

57:18

because that's been such a big part of the Quest

57:20

two ecosystem. not only with the app

57:22

lab stuff, but with side quests being a very viable way to get your

57:24

games out there without having going to go

57:28

through the Quest app store, and Google just put

57:30

twelve million dollars investing

57:32

inside Quest.

57:34

So I would hope as

57:36

a fan of VR that

57:38

whatever platform, whatever marketplace,

57:40

whatever ways they are getting

57:42

software onto Project Cambria, but there will be a side loading

57:44

option as well. Yeah. I think

57:46

the important distinction here

57:47

is this

57:50

is an investment led by Google Ventures. So it

57:52

would not read much into this

57:54

from a Google getting into

57:58

more into VR in any way, shape, or form? Yes.

58:00

Yes. Correct. Correct.

58:00

Is it making money? We think there is

58:02

money to be made by there was some

58:05

return to be made based on

58:07

the numbers. Speaking of return

58:08

to be made by numbers, what

58:11

about Sony's? Sony came out

58:13

with a PSVR projections

58:16

this week. And they were

58:18

not shy. They said

58:21

they have plans to

58:23

produce two million units by

58:26

the end of the first quarter next

58:28

year. Again,

58:29

the people who it's

58:32

almost working against their

58:34

own interests. they wanna show confidence in manufacturing capability

58:36

because PS

58:38

five has been tough to

58:39

get for two

58:41

years now. They wanna show Still

58:43

technically it is. It is. Absolutely. Still is. Two

58:45

years later, tough to get. They

58:47

wanna show investors

58:51

that they can meet demand, but

58:53

that's the assumption that demand is there. And so

58:55

there was show miss strength that, you know,

58:57

based on the adoption rate

58:59

of PSBR one, that PSVR two won't be like

59:02

connect to for for

59:04

Xbox. That because connect one is

59:06

such a big

59:08

sell through, that the expectation was a connect to would also have a big sell

59:10

through, and it became a non

59:12

factor in that generation. Howard Bauchner:

59:14

Yeah, these projections

59:15

seem wild

59:18

to me. So, like, PSVR so, like, it took,

59:20

like, a year to sell them a million

59:22

units of

59:24

that. So they're

59:25

kind of banking. Anyone that bought a

59:28

PSVR is gonna buy a

59:30

PSVR too. And then we tell

59:32

a friend Like, I know all

59:34

who's like, I think more so more so anyone who bought

59:36

APS5 would be interested

59:40

in buying a PSVR two because they get to make of this

59:44

powerful game console, the super

59:46

computer that

59:48

they bought. that there's a whole

59:50

new experience with the quality of the PlayStation

59:53

ecosystem of games. I

59:56

don't know. I

59:57

mean, the release said they're gonna come

59:59

out with twenty titles.

1:00:01

I imagine those

1:00:04

Most of those are gonna be ports of

1:00:06

games that were

1:00:07

on PSVR. And

1:00:10

so I Like,

1:00:12

this just seems wild, wildly

1:00:15

inflated numbers,

1:00:15

but not backed

1:00:18

by reality. Now I

1:00:20

think if there if some of these projections

1:00:22

are about stealing market share from

1:00:24

from the Quest too, maybe, but

1:00:26

they're gonna have to really

1:00:28

make sure that PS5 is as available as they

1:00:30

think and then aggressively

1:00:33

market this. And

1:00:36

there are like, is I'm not even sure this

1:00:38

is gonna hit the holiday window in the

1:00:40

way they want it

1:00:42

to.

1:00:43

Well, it's it's

1:00:45

it's not hitting this holiday window. It's gonna be in

1:00:47

the spring. And there

1:00:50

won't be, like, there'll be

1:00:52

ports, there won't be backward compatibility is what

1:00:54

they've said. So

1:00:56

I think there is gonna be ports. There won't

1:00:58

be backward compatibility. Right. That's like

1:01:00

and that is just gonna make a

1:01:03

small segment of hardcore users probably a

1:01:05

little upset. Yeah. I I could see both sides

1:01:07

of the argument. I'm

1:01:10

not wanting experiences

1:01:12

that did not make full use of,

1:01:14

you know, of what PSVR two

1:01:16

is capable of, you know, whether

1:01:18

it's from the the new dual

1:01:21

sense controllers to the

1:01:24

way the camera tracks, the better tracking.

1:01:26

But I I could also see there

1:01:28

are a lot of great games in PSVR one.

1:01:32

like super hyper cube that would

1:01:34

work perfectly well in

1:01:34

PSV on two and hopefully it's a easy

1:01:37

port, even if there is no

1:01:39

automatic network compatibility. Mhmm.

1:01:40

Alright.

1:01:42

So that does

1:01:44

it this week. A couple shout

1:01:48

outs. on the site. If you haven't seen, Adam reviewed Tippett's

1:01:50

upcoming art book, the art of

1:01:52

Phil Tippett and Tippett Studio. If

1:01:54

you are a fan of the Rick

1:01:57

bigger metamorphosis, big like these kind of like

1:02:00

it's it's a prime age for these coffee

1:02:02

table books that celebrate the the life's

1:02:04

work essentially. of

1:02:06

seminal effects artists, you know, whether it's the

1:02:08

art of Ralph inquiry or the

1:02:10

in the practical effects world, Rick

1:02:13

Baker, and now you have Phil Tippett and his

1:02:15

art book written by the two

1:02:17

guys who'd film the documentary.

1:02:19

It's the same same title as Doctor Henry Mad

1:02:21

dreams and monsters, which you'll watch

1:02:24

on Prime Streaming. It is

1:02:26

they they embedded in Tippett Studio for a whole

1:02:30

and during the filming, I believe, of the the Jared chest

1:02:32

sequence for episode seven and

1:02:34

took incredible photos of all

1:02:36

the stuff that Philipit had their document,

1:02:39

of course, his entire

1:02:41

his entire journey from,

1:02:43

you know,

1:02:45

creature creator to stop motion

1:02:47

pioneer to, you know, dinosaur

1:02:50

supervisor

1:02:50

in in Jurassic Park.

1:02:54

So that's what's coming out in a in a month

1:02:56

or so, but you can watch Adam's review, I

1:02:58

guess, sneak peek of some of those pages

1:03:01

in that video. We also

1:03:04

have videos that we shot

1:03:06

this past summer with our friends,

1:03:08

Calvin and

1:03:10

Kelly, who we've only previously met

1:03:12

up with, at New York Comic Con and Which is this

1:03:14

weekend. Good time. Gosh. Yes. Yeah. So

1:03:16

while we're not we won't be at New York

1:03:20

Comic Con this weekend. I won't be outside of Monster Plaza. Next

1:03:22

weekend, we have videos

1:03:24

coming up around those spaces. So they

1:03:26

were able to visit the shop

1:03:28

and shop. their extreme

1:03:30

wig styling. Oh, it's

1:03:31

incredible. Yeah. Yeah. It

1:03:34

There's a no face wig. They they brought

1:03:36

and

1:03:37

made. So good. is

1:03:41

incredible. The other thing I

1:03:43

would say is didn't new tested

1:03:45

VR episodes drop. Yes. Yes. So they're also and not only

1:03:47

shoot some YouTube videos with us, but we have a shot, a

1:03:50

test in VR episode with

1:03:52

them and some new ones with Adam

1:03:54

as well. which if you

1:03:56

have a Quest two, they're in

1:03:58

the Metacrest TVs Metacrest

1:04:00

TV, there'll be a link that

1:04:02

you can find in the description here or in that Cabot Crunchy's

1:04:05

video, or we can download the tested

1:04:07

VR app, launch it there, and

1:04:09

we got new cameras for Joey

1:04:11

to play around with this time, new stereo

1:04:13

video cameras, new Canon ones, and he's

1:04:15

able to shoot eight k

1:04:18

video, stereo video, which is

1:04:20

no easy feat to stitch

1:04:22

and process

1:04:24

from a post processing standpoint. And

1:04:26

then lastly, the reason I won't be at

1:04:29

son of Monster Plousa. Next week is

1:04:31

just because there's Connect and all

1:04:33

the coverage from that. but

1:04:36

we'll be going to London

1:04:38

to do a couple days of

1:04:41

filming. Joey, Adam, and I So if

1:04:43

you're a listener of the podcast and you have recommendations, we don't have a ton

1:04:45

of free time, but I think I might

1:04:47

have, like, one one

1:04:50

morning to to hop around London. I'm hoping

1:04:52

to stop by Forbidden Planet, the big

1:04:54

store, the big comic store in London.

1:04:58

And with the exchange rates the way they are, maybe pick up

1:05:00

some souvenirs -- No. -- for the family? Yeah.

1:05:02

It's a little bit, maybe get myself

1:05:06

a nice a nice a nice dinner

1:05:08

somewhere. Eat some eat

1:05:10

some sausage and mashed

1:05:12

or whatever the

1:05:14

letters eat. and then pick up

1:05:16

some souvenirs. But taking

1:05:18

recommendations. Yeah. Last time I was in

1:05:20

London, I think they had a they had a

1:05:22

Ralph Macquarie SIFY exhibit

1:05:24

at the Barbican Center that was awesome.

1:05:27

And a lot of his

1:05:29

early art along with some famous sci

1:05:31

fi pieces. So I feel like you should look up what some exhibits that are

1:05:33

in the on display. You know what's playing

1:05:35

to shore at the

1:05:38

Bargain Theater? while we're

1:05:39

there? What?

1:05:41

there Toro.

1:05:42

Oh, like,

1:05:43

yeah. You have to go.

1:05:45

It's sold out. Oh,

1:05:47

just count me. so No. I've I've looked for the days

1:05:49

were there. They're all sold out on the

1:05:52

secondary sites. No tickets that I

1:05:54

knew about. Adam

1:05:56

effing savage. We're talking to

1:05:59

you.

1:05:59

I

1:05:59

know. Come

1:06:00

on. I know. I know. We

1:06:02

we wanna Somebody help him out.

1:06:05

you can reach out. My DMs are

1:06:07

open. We'll we'll pay for tickets. We'll pay we'll

1:06:09

pay secondary market tickets.

1:06:12

Wednesday night is our

1:06:14

preferred night. nineteen,

1:06:16

I wanna say. Just splitting

1:06:18

it out there. No no special favors needed.

1:06:20

Yeah. It will be in London. for

1:06:22

for that week. Okay. And one final thing before we

1:06:24

sign off, I did want to acknowledge and

1:06:27

give a shout out to a

1:06:30

tragedy in the gaming world that

1:06:32

we had this past week. My

1:06:34

first boss at PC gamer

1:06:36

magazine, the man who hired me

1:06:38

as an in twenty two years

1:06:41

ago, passed away. His name is Rob

1:06:43

Smith. He was the editor in chief

1:06:45

of PC gamer. for many

1:06:48

years was the publisher,

1:06:50

thereafter, was the editor

1:06:52

of Mishima,

1:06:53

and also was part of the

1:06:56

e three. critics awards, part of

1:06:58

that organization with Jeff

1:07:00

Keelley, he unfortunately passed away

1:07:02

this past

1:07:04

weekend. So I just

1:07:06

wanted to give a shout out to him because without

1:07:08

Rob,

1:07:10

well, there would probably be

1:07:11

no tested. because Will

1:07:13

and I wouldn't have met, we wouldn't have found

1:07:15

it tested, and we wouldn't have teamed up with

1:07:18

Adam. And, you

1:07:20

know, and I cannot thank him enough for someone as someone

1:07:22

who was barely in

1:07:24

high school who didn't have

1:07:25

a driver's license, who just loved

1:07:27

playing PC games, and wants

1:07:29

to write about them on on the Internet and

1:07:32

learn how magazines were

1:07:34

made. He took a

1:07:36

chance on a cold call. and

1:07:38

taught me so much about,

1:07:40

you know, a young adult and

1:07:42

a young person and how

1:07:45

to be a professional in this

1:07:47

kind of business. I think when you're like

1:07:49

a --

1:07:50

you're a teenager, I don't know,

1:07:52

this will apply to your son, Kishore,

1:07:56

but, like, there's a there's a age. There's definitely a span which

1:07:58

you wanna rebel against your

1:07:59

parents. And you don't necessarily

1:08:02

look to your

1:08:04

parents as your your role models. You

1:08:06

look for other sources of, you know,

1:08:08

of of role models. And I definitely was

1:08:10

in that

1:08:12

age where I was looking for, you know, other role models in my

1:08:14

life and, you know, I love my parents, but, you know, that was in my

1:08:16

ANXI phase and

1:08:18

Rob and the team

1:08:20

at ACAmer were like my older brothers

1:08:22

and kind of like like my parents at that time, you know, and they taught me a

1:08:24

lot and

1:08:25

kind of help me help

1:08:27

me grow up. I

1:08:29

think we never stop looking for for renters and life.

1:08:31

There beyond Norm's touching message

1:08:34

and you

1:08:34

can read more on Twitter, I

1:08:39

saw messages from from Gary and Mike,

1:08:41

Micah, Jeff Kealey from

1:08:44

Game Awards, like, then,

1:08:46

like, there's an outpouring

1:08:48

of stories and condolences

1:08:50

from a number of game

1:08:53

journalists. So I encourage you to

1:08:55

search that out on Twitter. And

1:08:56

it's a it's a reminder that, you

1:08:58

know, the people who teachers you've had, right,

1:09:02

who've had big on your

1:09:04

life to reach out to them if you have

1:09:06

a chance. And it's some it's really unfortunate that sometimes

1:09:08

takes a tragedy

1:09:11

for you to have to

1:09:13

remember that. But the only silver lining I'll take

1:09:15

from this is

1:09:19

that it helps to help me take

1:09:21

a step back and reach out to some other people in my life as well. So thank you.

1:09:23

Thank you, Rob. Rest in

1:09:26

peace, you will be

1:09:28

missed. That

1:09:29

does it for this

1:09:31

week's podcast. We'll be back next week. I think have a

1:09:36

trifecta.

1:09:36

trifecta next

1:09:37

week. I

1:09:38

think we're gonna see an appearance of one one Jeremy Williams as we

1:09:41

recap the news

1:09:44

from MetaConnect in

1:09:47

Project Cambria. Stay tuned for that. I'll be

1:09:49

out. We'll call it a very special episode.

1:09:51

Yes. That's very special episode of

1:09:53

the Sony test. Thank you all

1:09:56

for listening. No outro this

1:09:58

week. We'll leave it with a little bit of moment silence, but thanks. We'll see you

1:09:59

next time.

1:10:02

the