Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 10/21 - Review-A-Palooza

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Tech Meme right home for Monday, October 21st, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. It's Review-A-Palooza Day with Surface reviews and Pixel-4 reviews. Also, Facebook announces a new disinformation initiative, Microsoft announces a secured core PC initiative, and Twitch wants in on the watch party action. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Facebook today announced some major new initiatives to combat questionable content, especially around elections and other political events. First, Facebook is now requiring some page owners to disclose the organizations running those pages, and if they are tied to state-owned media, quoting the Washington Post. We have a responsibility to stop abuse and election interference on our platform, the company said in a blog post. But the suite of policy and product

Starting point is 00:00:59 fixes is unlikely to end the growing dispute over Facebook's handling of political ads, particularly from President Trump that contain falsehoods. Facebook's decision against fact-checking or blocking those ads, which Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive, defended in an interview with the Washington Post last week, has drawn sharp rebukes from Democratic presidential candidates who have accused Facebook of profiting from lies, end quote. Along with this news, Facebook said it had removed four networks of accounts, three from Iran and one from Russia for the usual inauthentic behavior charges.

Starting point is 00:01:34 Also, Facebook announced it will more prominently label content that fact checkers deem false on both Facebook and Instagram and will add new labels to pages that it knows are being run by state-owned media, quoting Facebook itself. Over the next month, content across Facebook and Instagram that has been rated false or partly false by a third-party fact-checker will start to be more prominently labeled so that people can better decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share. The labels will be shown on top of false and partly false photos and videos, including on top of stories content on Instagram, and we'll link out to the assessment from the fact checker. Much like we do on Facebook when people try to share known misinformation, we're also introducing a new pop-up that will appear when people attempt to share posts on Instagram that include content that has been debunked by third-party fact-checkers. In addition to clearer labels, we're also working to take faster action to prevent misinformation from going viral, given that quality reporting and fact-checking takes time. In many countries, including the U.S., if we have signals that a piece of content is false, we temporarily reduce its distribution pending review by a third-party fact-checker, end quote. And back to quoting Tony Rahm in the Washington

Starting point is 00:02:46 Post, quote, Facebook's announcements arrive two days before Zuckerberg is set to appear on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are likely to press him on the company's work to safeguard U.S. elections from foreign manipulation, end quote. Microsoft has announced what it is calling the Secured Core Initiative for PCs, a program for vendors like Dell and Lenovo and others to help them adhere to security best practices for better firmware attack protections. Quoting Venture Beat. Microsoft partnered with chip and computer makers to apply, quote, security best practices of isolation and minimal trust to the firmware layer or the device core that underpins the Windows operating system, end quote. Secured core PCs will be available from D. Dell, Dinabook, H.P., Lenovo, Panasonic, and Surface. Microsoft hasn't released a full list of

Starting point is 00:03:38 secured core PCs, but two examples include HP's Elite Dragonfly and Microsoft Surface Pro X. Firmware is used to initialize the hardware and other software on the device. The firmware layer runs underneath the OS, where it has more access and privilege than the hypervisor and kernel. firmware is thus emerging as a top target for attackers, since the malicious code can be hard to detect and difficult to remove, persisting even with an OS reinstall or a hard drive replacement. Microsoft points to the National Vulnerability Database, which shows the number of discovered firmware vulnerabilities growing each year. As such, Secured Core PCs are designed for industries like financial services, government, and health care. They are also meant for workers

Starting point is 00:04:21 who handle highly sensitive IP, customer or personal data that poses higher value targets for nation-state attackers, end quote. Twitch is testing its own version of watch parties, a feature that will allow stream prime video content that their viewers can watch along with so long as they are also prime video subscribers themselves, quoting slash gear. The feature test was recently shared by Twitch streamer Travis Schreffler, as spied by Engadgett and a series of screenshots on Twitter. According to an email sent by Twitch to select streamers, the new Wi-Fi. Watch parties feature offers, quote, a selection of prime video movies and TV shows for streaming on one's channel. Viewers can watch these movies and TV shows alongside the streamer, but only if they are a prime subscriber.

Starting point is 00:05:12 The company specifies that Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Mission Impossible Fallout, and Pokemon are among the content that can be streamed in watch parties right now, end quote. Today is basically review embargo day for all of the hardware announcements we've had this month. So let's start with a quick roundup of the Surface reviews. Reviewers seem to think that the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 has great performance, is cool and quiet, resumes quickly, has USBC, but no Thunderbolt 3, no LTE, which is a real head scratcher to me, and lots of folks were also wondering why Microsoft continues sticking with the same hardware design as they've had for the last several years. Here's Tom Warren in The Verge, quote,

Starting point is 00:06:03 The Surface Pro 7 is still best in class, and it's undoubtedly the 2-1-to-beat, but there's more that Microsoft could do here. I do wonder if Microsoft has been waiting on Intel to get its act together on 10 nanometer and beyond, and perhaps opted for the Surface Pro X design with Qualcomm instead. Either way, the usability of the Surface Pro 7 has certainly improved with Quick Resume and USBC this year,

Starting point is 00:06:27 but things like the Surface Pro-Sign design, but things like the clever surface slim pen that slots into the type cover on the Surface Pro X just aren't here. It's all too familiar. The Surface Pro X looks like it's now attempting to set the stage in terms of raw hardware for competitors to catch up to, and we'll now need to see if the ProX can even come close to matching the performance of the Surface Pro 7. That's highly unlikely, which will leave the Surface Pro 7 needing to catch up to the design of the Surface Pro X next year, end quote. By the way, no Surface Pro X reviews today, but we do have some for the Surface laptop three, at least the 15-inch version. Dan Seaford wondered who the Surface laptop 3, 15-inch, is for exactly.

Starting point is 00:07:12 Quote, it's not as light and portable as the 13-5-inch laptop 3, Acer's featherweight Swift 5, or LG's gram-15. At the same time, it's not nearly as powerful or capable as many other premium-priced 15-inch laptop. such as Microsoft's own Surfacebook 2, the Dell XPS15, Apple's MacBook Pro, or any number of 15-inch gaming laptops, end quote. He concluded by saying this, quote, if you are looking for a 15-inch laptop for productivity, writing, and other modern work-related tasks, the Surface laptop three is an excellent choice, provided you don't need all-day battery life. I really love the display's extra size and its aspect ratio compared to other 15-inch laptops, and the keyboard and touchpad combination are the best you will find on any laptop. The laptop 3 has the same level of fit and finish as Microsoft's other surface devices, and it fits right in a modern workspace or coffee shop. It is an excellent, thin, and light computer for doing productivity work on.

Starting point is 00:08:07 Still, if you were hoping that the 15-inch laptop 3 would be more than just a bigger surface laptop, I'm sorry to report that you'll be disappointed. Fortunately, there are plenty other more powerful 15-inch laptops available, such as Apple's MacBook Pro, Dell's XPS 15, or even Microsoft's own Surface Book 2. I don't know if Microsoft needs to make a 15-inch version of the Surface laptop, but it did, and it mostly did a good job with it, end quote. And the Pixel 4 reviews came out this morning. Again, I can give you a quick whip around.

Starting point is 00:08:41 The reviews were mixed to me, I'd say. This is probably the best Android phone out there in a lot of ways. People still seem to think. The camera tech is still top of the line. People still seem to think, although maybe not as. far ahead of the competition as before. But the hardware design feels pedestrian and lots of people complained about battery life. Lots of complaints about the four not making it through the day. Lots of people saying if you're going to get a four, make sure you get the larger 4xl for the

Starting point is 00:09:14 longer battery life. In fact, Android Central only rated it a three and a half out of five saying, quote, let me be clear, I really like the pixel 4. From morning until mid-afternoon, it's one of my favorite phones of the year. And then around 3pm, when the battery indicator drops below 40%, I revisit the frustration of what owning a smartphone was like half a decade ago. The difference is that unlike then, I don't have to live like that anymore. Most phones, even smaller ones, even ones made by Google, managed to last the whole day and well into the following one. I've spent the whole summer with a Huawei P30 Pro and occasionally didn't charge it at night because I knew it would last. For all of the Pixel 4's greatness, it's the first smaller version of the phone.

Starting point is 00:09:55 I can't recommend. The Pixel 2 saved us from the 2xel's terrible screen. The Pixel 3 duck the bathtub notch. But unless you're absolutely allergic to big phones, the only Pixel 4 you should consider this year is the Pixel 4 XL, end quote. Dieter at the Verge was much more positive saying, quote, the pixel 4 provides a more cohesive, complete experience than other Android phones. It takes away lots of little points of friction through clever uses,

Starting point is 00:10:25 of its new sensors like face unlock and motion sense. It gets rid of Jank with the 90 Hertz display. It has a camera that continues to take incredible photos, keeping pace with the iPhone 11 Pro. It's not perfect. I'm disappointed by the Middling battery life, and I'm baffled as to why Google hasn't tried harder to improve video recording quality.

Starting point is 00:10:45 I'm also bummed that Google is pushing people towards paying for its Google One cloud storage instead of offering full quality Google photo backups or providing more onboard storage. You will find Android phones with better specs, but specs have never been what the pixel is about. Instead, it's the interplay of the new features on the pixel four that make the whole thing feel more seamless and natural. It's something you can't learn from a spec sheet or a leak.

Starting point is 00:11:06 The pixel four is more of a joy to use than any other Android phone, end quote. And actually, I don't have to do a full review roundup because Google gave me a review unit of my own. So here's my take. Note that I've been using the pixel four for the last week, not the 4. X-L, and I had the white one, not that cool orange one. If I were going to recommend going for a particular color, I definitely go for the orange, seeing that in person last week. That's the one. Frankly, I lean more towards Dieter's overall take. The Pixel 4 is the best Android experience I've had on any Android device I've personally used ever. It's smooth. Everything seems pretty

Starting point is 00:11:53 flawless. The screen is great. The ease of the face unlock tech was a revelation. I didn't realize that I kind of really hate face unlock on iPhones until I started using this and realized, yes, I hate it. Motion sense, the ability to wave your hand over the phone to skip songs and the like is gimmicky for now, but I can see once I had that option on a regular basis. I'd probably use it quite a lot. Phones tend to sit on my desk on wireless chargers all day long, popping notifications at me, so waving out the phone to take action on things would be something that I can see becoming routine. Google Assistant, at least on this device, is another revelation to me. I realize how little I use Siri because it just never works. I mean, never. I mean, three attempts

Starting point is 00:12:38 just to set an alarm is common, so I really just never try anymore. The amount of things you can ask Google Assistant to do on this phone and have it deliver pretty much every time makes me realize I've been bearish this whole time on voice input as a user control paradigm, largely because I've just never regularly used devices that voice control kind of just works on. And speaking of voice, that voice memos app is a miracle, straight up. If I were a college student or a reporter, I can see buying this phone just to get that feature. So it should be noted, it should be migrating to other Android devices over time. The camera was indeed as impressive as everyone says. I hadn't used a pixel phone in about two years, so this was my first real time spent with the cameras, and I agree they are best in class. Portrait mode seems to work better than on iPhones.

Starting point is 00:13:29 The night sight mode with that ability to take shaky hands and turn that into a thing that makes the end result photos better is really clever tech. And I do think that the Zoom is as impressive as any that I've seen. Check out my Twitter feed because, as I see. scootered in this morning, I took some shots to give you a Zoom comparison, though supposedly that software update to bring DeepFusion to the iPhone 11 Pro cameras is coming. I didn't get as terrible battery life as others did, but then I didn't use it all that heavily, to be honest. It felt the same to me maybe as my iPhone 10S. And speaking of iPhone comparisons, hardware design-wise, the pixel just feels the same as the current iPhones. Feels the same in the hand. Kind of looks the same. I do prefer

Starting point is 00:14:14 the pixel's chin over the iPhone's notch, but I can see that being a personal thing as well. Anyway, bottom line, I'd say this. If you have the money, this is the Android phone I would get. Super solid performance and the pure top-of-the-line Android experience, no skins and other cruft. But that does bring me back to the hardware design for a moment. In terms of sexiness, the phone that impressed me the most this year was the Galaxy Note 10. I came back from that event feeling like the screen and form of that phone. after playing around with it, made my iPhone look like some sort of kids' play school toy. And that comparison would go to the pixel four as well, since again, I contend that in a lot of ways,

Starting point is 00:14:53 you'd have a hard time telling an iPhone and a pixel apart, design-wise. But if hardware design, sexiness is not your overriding concern, again, for that top-of-the-line camera, the purest distillation of Android. If I were in the market for an Android phone right now today, I would go with a pixel four, no doubt about it. I had two conversations with listeners over the weekend that made me want to point out some things that I thought you all knew, but maybe bears reinforcing. First of all, if you listen to this show every day, you do know you can subscribe to it, right? If you mash that subscribe button in your podcast app, the episodes will show up in your podcast app every day without you having to do anything. If you're a regular listener to this show and you've never subscribed to it, please do so.

Starting point is 00:15:45 helps the show stay healthy. It also makes life easier for you. And also, it was a year ago this week that my book came out. We've had a lot of new listeners since then, so maybe not everyone is aware, but I wrote a book for Norton last year called How the Internet Happened, from Netscape to the iPhone. It was five years of research. If you like me filling you in on what happened over the last 24 hours in tech,

Starting point is 00:16:10 then you might enjoy me walking you through what happened in tech over the last 25 years. Check it out if you never have. Again, it's called How the Internet Happened. Available wherever books and e-books are sold. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 10/21 - Review-A-Palooza

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