Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/29 – Apple’s iGlasses To Be Called Reality One?

Starting point is 00:00:04 Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Monday, August 29th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. Really, Apple? That is what you're going to call your ARVR glasses. I'll tell you what that is. A look at the past keys Apple is bringing to us soon. More deets on the Netflix ad-supported tier. WhatsApp's super app ambitions seem to be bearing fruit in India. And is it too late for Eminem and Snoop Dog to save the NFT market? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Mark German's scoop for us in his new. newsletter this weekend strongly suggests that Apple is considering calling its mixed reality headset Reality One or maybe Reality Pro and its specialized chip for the headset to be named Reality processor. Quote, applications were filed in the U.S. EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay for the names Reality One, Reality Processor. Though Apple itself didn't make the filings, they follow a pattern that the iPhone maker has used in the past, including relying on law firms that the company has previously enlisted to lockdown brands. The new trademarks are all registered to a Shell Corporation named

Starting point is 00:01:16 Immersive Health Solutions LLC that was incorporated in February, according to records obtained by Bloomberg News. The company itself was registered by another Delaware Shell Corporation, the Corporation Trust Company, typically used for filings by firms looking to avoid detection. The Reality OS trademark used that same firm. In order to file the trademark paperwork, a process that began in Canada with an original application in February and in several other countries in August, the company behind the trademarks relied on several big name and boutique law firms in each operating nation. In the U.S., Canada and New Zealand, the filer enlisted law firms that Apple has used in the past to either register trademarks or for other matters. In New Zealand, for instance, the firm Simpson-Grearson

Starting point is 00:01:59 was used for the reality filings. Apple relied on that same firm to file the corporate name Apple Sales New Zealand. Apple has long followed the same process to register upcoming product names either months or years before their official debut. The approach allows Apple to secure the names early with less risk of having to buy them later from another trademark holder. The company didn't take the approach ahead of the iPhone's debut in 2007 and ultimately needed to reach an agreement with Cisco systems for that name. Apple is aiming to release its first mixed reality headset at the high end of the market in 2023, but the device has faced issues with camera sensors, software, and overheating during development. If Apple is indeed behind the

Starting point is 00:02:39 Trademarks Reality One and Reality Pro, those could be theoretical options for the new product. The company also could be registering multiple names in case it wants to release a range of devices in the future, end quote. Really, Apple, you're going to leave eyeglasses just sitting there as an option. I know the last thing called an I-something was the iPad, but still, P.S., remember how Apple is making their own big push to eliminate passwords. Pass keys are coming to iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura, and ahead of that, Apple says more than 95% of active ICloud users already have two-factor authentication enabled on their accounts, quoting 9 to 5 Mac. What are pass keys? Passwords are one of the weakest links in digital security today. Many people will choose a password and then use it across

Starting point is 00:03:33 every app, website, or service they sign into. Passwords can also be leaked in database breaches, obtained via fishing attacks, and much more. Pass keys address those issues and let users transition to a completely passwordless lifestyle using public key cryptography. Apple's support for the pass key standard was announced at WWDC in June. As we've explained in the past, pass keys replace your password with a digital key that is unique to your account. This digital key stays on the device, is end-to-end encrypted, and is never stored on a web server. Each pass key you create is unique to that app, website, or service. Pass keys are an extension of the Fido standard feature that Apple implemented as part of iOS 15 and MacOS 12 last year.

Starting point is 00:04:17 The Fido standard feature, however, requires the user to log into each app or website on each device before enabling a passwordless sign-in method. Pass keys remove that step and allow users to transition to a password-list list, login method altogether. Apple's existing support for biometric logins also extends to pass keys allowing you to authenticate with face ID or touch ID. This makes pass keys stronger than all other regularly used types of two-factor authentication. The flow for logging in with a pass key keychain will work similarly to using iCloud keychain and face ID or touch ID. The difference, of course, is that instead of choosing a credential from iCloud keychain and auto-filling your password and username

Starting point is 00:04:56 into text fields, you'll choose or create a passkey as your login method. Pass keys are synced across your devices using iCloud keychain with end-to-end encryption, so even Apple can't view the information. What about logging into apps or services on a non-Apple device? Because pass keys are stored on the Fido standard cross-platform support is built right in. The other non-Apple device will generate a QR code that can be read by your phone or iPad. iOS then uses face ID or touch ID to confirm that it's you who's trying to sign in. then it will confirm or deny the requests to the app or website running on the other device.

Starting point is 00:05:29 The use of pass keys in iOS 16 and macOS Venture will require that you also have two-factor authentication enabled for your iCloud account, adding another layer of protection. While this may sound like a roadblock that could inhibit the adoption of pass keys among users, Apple says this won't be the case. Apple confirmed a 9-5 Mac exclusively that over 95% of active iCloud users already have two-factor authentication enabled on their accounts. This is an impressive achievement by Apple as part of its efforts to protect users across their devices and accounts. Since this is a new API, Pass Keys requires developers to update their apps and websites to support the new standard.

Starting point is 00:06:04 This means it won't be an instant transition even once iOS 16 and MacOS Ventura are released. With that being said, however, Apple has provided extensive documentation to help developers implement pass keys in their iOS and MacOS apps and on the web. Apple also explained that because pass keys use auto fill and face ID or touch ID for biometric authentication, they can be used alongside passwords if necessary. This means that developers can adopt the new authentication services API to add pass keys to their sign-in flows to allow users to sign in without entering a password or username. Apple confirmed to Tom's guide earlier this month that it is already working hand in hand with many developers to integrate pass-key support into their apps. This signals that we can expect day-one pass-key support from some apps and websites

Starting point is 00:06:46 when iOS 16 launches next month, end quote. You know, why not? Snap has added a dual camera feature to Snapchat on iOS, enabling users to capture photos and videos using their phones front-facing and rear-facing cameras simultaneously, quoting and gadget. It's now available on iOS for iPhone 10S and newer. Snap says dual camera won't be available on Android for several more months. The company first teased the feature in April when it said the new video option

Starting point is 00:07:20 would be part of a suite of more advanced features for creators called Director Mode. But while Director Mode hasn't launched yet, Snap says it's expecting in the coming months to launch, the company opted to roll out dual camera as a standalone feature in the main Snapchat camera. With Snapchat's dual camera enabled, users can record video using both cameras at once and can change up the layout of the two clips. There's a split-screen version which places each camera on one half of the screen, a picture-and-picture style, and a cut-out mode similar to the effect you might get with TikTok's green screen. Dual camera mode also supports Snapchat's signature augmented reality lenses,

Starting point is 00:07:55 though, for now, the effects can only be applied after the fact. Snap isn't the only company experimenting with dual camera recording. Instagram is also testing a dual camera setup called Candid Challenges, which the company confirmed last week is currently an internal prototype. For now, that feature sounds more like a straight up copy of Be Real, but it's not difficult to imagine the feature could one day make an appearance in Reels as well, end quote. More potential details on that new ad-supported Netflix tier. Sources are telling our friend Lucas Shaw that Netflix plans to charge $7 to $9 a month for that tier, with around four minutes of ads an hour, and that the tier may launch by the end of this year.

Starting point is 00:08:43 Quote, Netflix plans to sell about four minutes of commercials per hour for the ad-supported service far less than most of its peers, according to people familiar with the company's plans. The company will show advertisements before and during some programs, not after. It's also telling advertisers it wants to make smaller deals up front so it doesn't overpromise and overwhelm viewers with the spots, said the people who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. Netflix plans to introduce its new cheaper option during the final three months of the year in at least a half a dozen markets. The company has said the full rollout may have to wait until next year. Details of the service have begun to trickle

Starting point is 00:09:18 out as Netflix makes its plans and meets with business partners. A lot could change as the company builds out the business. Many cable networks feature between 10 and 20 minutes of advertising per hour. Most streaming services offer less than cable. Some like Hulu frustrate viewers by showing the same commercials over and over again. Netflix is hoping to avoid these complaints about frequency by starting slow. It won't be using too much targeting to tailor ads to the viewer. Most people will see the same ads. And Netflix wants to make sure the same spots don't repeat over and over again, end quote. Meta has partnered with GeoMart, an e-commerce venture between Reliance Retail and Geo Platforms, to launch a grocery shopping service on WhatsApp in India, quoting TechCrunch.

Starting point is 00:10:07 Customers in India will be able to browse GeoMart's entire grocery catalog on WhatsApp, add items to cart, make the payments via local payments, Rails, UPI, without ever leaving the instant messaging service, the company said. WhatsApp, which is used by about a half a billion Indians each month, got the approval to extend its UPI-powered payments service to 100 million users in the country earlier this year after several delays and setbacks. Meta is a significant minority investor in Geo Platforms, the country's largest telecom subscriber with over 421 million subscribers. On Monday, Geo also announced it will be spending $25 billion to debut 5G services in the country in October this year and aims to reach

Starting point is 00:10:47 every town in the South Asian market by the end of next year, end quote. It's been a while since we talked about this, but WhatsApp's long quest to become a super app, at least in India, might finally be coming to fruition. Quoting the verge. Ultimately, META wants WhatsApp to be a WeChat-style super app, the one app users need to run their whole lives. WeChat users can pay their rent in the app, buy concert tickets in the app, pay for food in the app, and much more. Any platform that can consume that much of people's lives is basically guaranteed to make a fortune in the process through payment processing fees, premium features, and you guessed it, ads. No other platform has come anywhere close to achieving WeChat's level of dominance,

Starting point is 00:11:27 but with more than 2 billion users, WhatsApp has a better chance than most. India is its most popular market, too, with roughly 400 million users in the country. WhatsApp is free, it doesn't take much data, and it runs on phones at practically all prices. Ultimately, you should expect integrations like this to show up all over WhatsApp. The company has been working on in-app shopping for at least the last couple years, continues to press on user-to-user payments and is actively developing its WhatsApp business app. WhatsApp wants to be an encrypted place for you to talk to your loved ones, but if it can also be a place for you to talk to your airline, your grocer, your hair stylist, your broker, it can become

Starting point is 00:12:02 both a more powerful platform and an absolute goldmine. Doing that without ruining the chat experience, though, that's going to be hard to pull off, end quote. Finally today, you might have seen that Eminem and Snoop Dog performed at MTV's Video Music Awards. In Yuga Lab's Game, other side, using board ape, yacht club, NFT avatars that they own, quoting CNET. Eminem and Snoop Dog became the first major music artist to harness their beloved board apes in a performance. The two rappers starred as their respective NFTs in the video clip from the D2, the LBC, their latest collaboration. The pair's performance at Sunday's

Starting point is 00:12:46 MTV VMAs echoed the video clip. It started with Eminem getting super high off Snoop Dogg's second-hand weed smoke, high enough that they turned into their board apes. Sunday's performance doubled as an advertisement for OtherSide, a Metaverse game developed by Yuga Labs, the team that created the board ape yacht club collection last April. Other side features little goblin creatures called Codas, which had a prominent role in the background of Sunday's performance, end quote. Well, hey, it sounds like somebody needs to pump those apes, or those NFTs generally. Quoting Coin Telegraph. OpenC, the world's largest non-fungible token marketplace, has witnessed a substantial drop in daily volumes as fears about a potential market bubble grow.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Notably, the marketplace processed nearly $5 million worth of NFT transactions on August 28th, approximately 99% lower than its record high of $405.75 million on May 1st, according to DAP radar. The massive declines in daily volumes coincided with equally drastic drops in OpenC users and their transactions, suggesting that the value and interest in the blockchain-based collectibles have diminished in recent months. That is further visible in the following floor prices, the minimum amount one is ready to pay for an NFT of leading digital collectible projects. For instance, the floor price of the board ape yacht club has dropped by 53% to 72.5th on August 28th versus a high of 153.7th on May 1st. Similarly, the floor price of Cryptopunks, another top NFT collection, dropped almost 20% from

Starting point is 00:14:15 its July high of 83.72 eath. Last week, Bend Dow. A decentralized autonomous organization that enables NFT owners to collateralize their digital collections to take loans in ETH worth 30 to 40% of the NFT's floor price voted to change its protocols code to make its NFT collateral more liquid. The vote occurred after a rise in ether price increased the value of ETH-denominated loans in dollar terms. Meanwhile, on the other hand, NFT prices plummeted, reducing the value of the collateral held by Ben Dow. As a result, Ben Dow is now facing its own debt crisis moment. where borrowers cannot pay their dollar-denominated loans due to falling ETH prices,

Starting point is 00:14:56 and lenders are finding it difficult to recover their loaned amount due to falling collateral valuations, end quote. Ah, COVID did it to us again. You might remember that our 4th of July trip to Michigan that was supposed to last a week, only lasted 48 hours because we all got COVID. Now, the folks we were going to visit over Labor Day weekend just got COVID, so that trip is off. I was planning to take Friday off because we'd be traveling. Now maybe I won't. Now maybe I will do a show on Friday. We shall see. Still, point of this is very tired of COVID. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/29 – Apple’s iGlasses To Be Called Reality One?

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