Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 07/15 – Is It Too Early To Start Talking About 6G?

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Apple wins its big tax fight with the EU. Sony is doubling PlayStation 5 production because: Covid. Zoom has its own hardware device. An early review of the new Peacock streaming service. And forget 5G. Is it too early to talk about what to expect from 6G? Sponsors: TinyCapital.com BuyRaycon.com/tech Links: Apple Wins Fight Over $14.9 Billion Tax Bill in Blow to EU (Bloomberg) Sony Boosting Output of PlayStation 5 to Meet Surge in Demand (Bloomberg) Google invest $4.5 billion in India's Reliance Jio Platforms (TechCrunch) Zoom introduces all-in-one home communications appliance for $599 (TechCrunch) Samsung: Expect 6G in 2028, enabling mobile holograms and digital twins (VentureBeat) Peacock’s interface aims to recreate the feeling of live TV, but it comes up short (The Verge) Peacock is live: Prices, free trials, devices, shows and movies (CNET) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Wednesday, July 15th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple wins its big tax fight with the EU. Sony is doubling PlayStation 5 production because COVID. Zoom has its own hardware device, an early preview of the new Peacock streaming service. And forget 5G. Is it too early to start talking about 6G? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

Well, someone in Silicon Valley is capable of staring down the EU and actually, winning. Apple has won its EU court fight over a record $14.9 billion Irish tax bill, as the EU General Court has ruled that Ireland's tax arrangements with the company weren't legal, quoting Bloomberg. While the EU general court's ruling can still be appealed, judges delivered a stinging attack on the European Commission for failing to show, quote, to the requisite legal standard, that Ireland's tax deal broke state aid law by giving Apple an unfair advantage. The commission's intent seemed to be a political one to punish Apple for its overall tax planning rather than to reach a result that accorded with the legal or economic position.

Dan Needle, a tax lawyer with Clifford Chance said in a statement, the court has quite rightly followed the law and not any wider political objectives, end quote. The ruling represents a crushing blow to European Union Competition Commissioner Marguith Vestager's crackdown on preferential fiscal deals for companies. The EU will consider its next steps after studying the Luxembourg-based court's judgment, Vestager said in a statement, quote, if member states give certain multinational companies tax advantages not available to their rivals, this harms fair competition, she said, adding that the EU, quote, will continue to look at aggressive tax planning measures under EU state aid rules, end quote. Apple said the case, quote, was not about how much tax we pay, but where we are required to pay it. The firm has, quote, paid more than $100 billion in corporate income taxes around the world in the last decade and tens of billions more in other taxes, end quote.

From the winning in the COVID-19 era file, sources are saying that Sony is ramping up production of PlayStation 5 devices by as much as 50% above what it was originally planning for. Sony is looking to produce 10 million units now for the upcoming launch quarter for the device. Why? They're anticipating soaring demand, as it increasingly doesn't look like the pandemic will be done with us all before the PlayStation 5 actually gets here, quoting Bloomberg. The electronics giant has informed assembly partners and suppliers its radically increasing orders for its next generation console, though logistics may yet pose a challenge to delivering all those machines on time for the holiday shopping season, the people said, asking to remain anonymous. Sony had previously aimed to produce 5 million, to 6 million PS5 units by the end of March 2021, Bloomberg News has reported. But concerns about a second wave of coronavirus infections may keep more people at home for longer

as governments around the world closely monitor efforts to reopen their economies. Sony's revised expectation is that this ongoing situation will stir additional demand for the PlayStation 5 console, whose official debut captivated the gaming community. Even with a boost to manufacturing, Sony may still be unable to put enough units on store shelves in the coming year and holiday season due to shipping constraints, the people said. A large proportion of Sony's consoles are made in China and sent out via sea around the world. It takes months for shipments to travel from China to the U.S. and Europe via ocean lines, and Nintendo earlier this year, had trouble refilling stock of its popular Switch console for this reason, end quote.

There's a suggestion that given how airlines are only running half capacity, maybe Sony could commandeer or charter some of those 747s that are sitting on the ground idle otherwise. And two other tidbits here, Sony began PS5 mass production in June and expects to have 5 million units ready by September. Also, another hardware device ramping up production to meet unexpected demand, according to the Niki Asian review. Oculus VR is also doubling the amount of production it's doing. Yeah, well, here you go. As we discussed, Google has indeed announced it will invest $4.5 billion in geo platforms for a 7.73% stake in that company, all as part of Google's recently announced $10 billion

India digitization fund. So, officially squaring that story circle, Google is determined not to be left out of this party. But what does Google bring to the party? Remember, Facebook wanted to get buddy-buddy with Reliance Geo to help do commerce over. WhatsApp. I'm sure Google wants to do commerce in some form as well, but TechCrunch says that more immediately, Google and Reliance Geo Platforms will work on a custom version of Android to develop low-cost entry-level smartphones for the Indian market. Quote, getting technology into the hands of more people is a big part of Google's mission, said Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive at Google via a video chat on Wednesday. Together, we are excited to rethink from the ground up how millions of

users in India can become owners of smartphones. This effort will unlock new opportunities, further power the vibrant ecosystem of applications and push innovation to drive growth for the new Indian economy, he said. So that makes a lot of sense. Remember, we've outlined how Geo has revolutionized India telecoms with its low-cost monthly plans, but it's also worth noting that this is a rare instance where Google has been willing to invest in a company that Facebook has also been willing to invest in, which leads me to something I've been wondering about. Does Reliance Geo really want everyone and their mother as an investor? Like too many cooks in the kitchen sort of thing? I mean, I can see that if you're selling yourself as a once-in-a-generation mega-platform opportunity that

everyone can play on, that you'd want everyone involved. But, I mean, if everyone is involved, is an investor, and theoretically would want preferential treatment at least, or even a say on later strategy decisions. Couldn't that be a problem someday down the road? Zoom has its own hardware. Zoom has unveiled a $599 all-in-one home communications device called the Zoom for Home D-T-EN-M-E, with a 27-inch screen preloaded Zoom software, eight microphones, and three wide-angle cameras. Quoting TechCrunch. Jeff Smith, head of Zoom rooms, said that the idea is to offer an appliance that you can pull out of the box and it's ready to use with minimal fuss. Quote,

Zoom for Home is an initiative from Zoom that allows any Zoom user to deploy a personal collaboration device for their video meetings, phone calls, interactive whiteboard annotation, all the good stuff that you want to do on Zoom. You can do it with a dedicated purpose-built device, Smith told TechCrunch. He says this is designed with simplicity in mind so that you pull it out of the box and launch the interface by entering a pairing code on a website, on your laptop, or mobile phone. Once the interface appears, you simply touch the function you want, such as making a phone call or starting a meeting, and it connects automatically. You can link it to your calendar so that all your meetings appear in a sidebar, and you just touch the next meeting to connect.

If you need to share your screen and includes ultrasonic pairing between the appliance and your laptop or mobile phone, this works like Bluetooth, but instead of sending a radio signal, it sends out a sound between 18 and 22 kilohertz, which most people can't hear to connect the two devices, Smith said, end quote. note that the new device, again, the Zoom for Home, will work with any existing Zoom license. So not that you would, but don't buy this if you're not already a paying Zoom user. Pre-orders are being taken starting today, and the device will ship next month. Paul Josephach snarked on Twitter, quote, I never thought I'd say I'd prefer having Facebook Portal or Alexa listening in my house, end quote. But here we are, I guess. At the same time, though, I mean, clearly we're going to start seeing smart TVs with Zoom preloaded on them right away, right?

Probably in about three, two, one. Is it too early to start talking about 6G? I mean, the 5G networks aren't even close to fully rolled out yet. The vast majority of us still don't have 5G capable phones yet. And yet, Samsung is already making predictions about 6G networks and they're speculated upon terrahertz radio spectrum that would allow peak data rates 50 times greater than what 5G will give us.

Samsung is also predicting that such wizardry might get to us as soon as 2028. To be clear, this is entirely predictive or really speculative on Samsung's part because the 6G research is still ongoing and a standard has not been settled upon yet. Still, Samsung wants to dream a dream, and funny enough, that dream hangs its hat on a couple of favorite dreams of Silicon Valley. Eubiquitous VR for one, actually scratch that. Forget VR. Let's talk about XR.

Oh, and Star Wars style holograms, quoting Venture Beat. Given that the 5G standard already enabled massive boosts in data bandwidth and reductions in latency over 4G, the questions of what more 6G could offer and why are key to a standard. establishing the need for a new standard. On the what side, Samsung expects 6G to offer 50 times higher peak data rates than 5G or 1,000 GBPS with a user-experienced data rate of 1GPS, plus support for 10 times more connected devices in a square kilometer, and additionally, Samsung is targeting air latency reductions from 5Gs under 1 millisecond to under 100 microseconds, a 100-microseconds, a 100-time improvement in air-free reliability and twice the energy efficiency of 5G.

The obvious question is why, and it's here that Samsung is either grasping or visionary, depending on your perspective. Some of 6G's potential applications are clearly iterative, it notes, including faster broadband for mobile devices, ultra-reliable low-latency communications for autonomous vehicles, and factory-scale automation. Better performance of 5G's key applications will appeal to some businesses and consumers, as will support for next generation computer vision technologies that well exceed human perception. Samsung suggests that while the human eye is limited to a maximum resolution of 1-150th degree

and view angle of 200 degrees in azmuth and 130 degrees in zenith, multi-camera machines will process data at resolutions, angles, wavelengths, and speeds that people can't match, eating untold quantities of bandwidth as a result. On the human side, Samsung also suggests that 6G will be needed to enable truly immersive, extended reality, as next generation XR headsets will need around 0.44GBPS throughput to power human retina matching 16 million pixel displays. That's more individual bandwidth than what 5G networks can guarantee. Similarly, Samsung expects that mobile and larger displays will begin to display actual volumetric holograms, requiring at least 580 GbPS for a phone-sized 6.7-inch display and human-sized holograms at several

terabits per second. To the extent that holographic displays are a known concept to many people, another key 6G application, digital twins or digital replicas, isn't. Going forward, Samsung expects that people, objects, and places will be fully replicated digitally, enabling users to, quote, explore and monitor the reality in a virtual world without temporal or spatial constraints, including one-way or two-way interactions between physical and digital twins. A human might use a digital twin to visit their office, seeing everything in digital form while relying on a robot for physical interactions. Duplicating a one-square-meter area in real time would require 800 GbPS throughput, again, well beyond 5G's capacity.

End quote. Finally, today is Peacock Day. Congratulations, everyone. You can now get your first look at NBC Universal slash Comcast's new late entrant into the streaming wars. And friend of the show, Julia Alexander, has a lengthy preview for us, quote, depending on how people watch Peacock, they'll be presented with two different viewing options. For people using Peacock on a TV, the app will automatically open up in browse, the main streaming portal. For people using a mobile device or tablet, Peacock will open up in trending, which acts as a collection of short news, entertainment, and sports clips. Think of it like a mixture of Instagram, YouTube, and Quibi all rolled into one. Let's start with browse. As many people are likely to stream Peacock via their TV sets,

connected devices like PlayStation and Xbox consoles or on an Apple TV unit, the browse section isn't particularly inventive or impressive, but it works. Anyone who's used Netflix or Hulu will already have a concrete understanding of how to use this particular section of the app. What it does accomplish, however, is showcasing NBC Universal's impressive catalog. It's a treasure trove of IP laid out in an easy-to-navigate fashion that aggregates a ton of good TV in one place. In that way, Peacock succeeds at reminding people why it should become an app they'll open consistently. The first four tabs, featured TV shows, movies, and kids cater to that audience. It's the fifth and sixth tabs within the browsing section that offer a little bit more insight

into how Peacock differentiates itself from its competitors beyond content alone. Peacock has a dedicated news and sports tab, and most days those tabs will be populated with live programming. On the news side, the top tile, that's what Peacock's team is calling the main slot at the top of the page, will likely change to NBC's newly announced 24-hour Today Show programming. Today, all day. sports, a similar design will be used, but when it comes to high-profile exclusives like Premier League matches, those live events will have their own tile at the top of the

browse homepage with prominent promotion of the games, end quote. But also, Peacock has actual dedicated channels, and that's where it's a bit interesting, I think, quoting here from CNET. Peacock has channels of TV, but those aren't live streams of its networks. Instead, said, they're curated feeds of shorter programming or full episodes organized around themes. One channel, for example, like Today All Day, which mixes clips from NBC's Today Show with original segments for Peacock by the show's hosts. Other channels are based on The Office, Saturday Night Live, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, all stocked with clips or things like The Tonight Show, True Crime, or Bob Ross with full episodes, end quote.

So got that. Full episodes of The Office, won't be coming to Peacock until next year. But right now, there's already a 24-7 channel devoted to nothing more than an unending, lazy Susan, of clips from the office. Clips make a ton of sense for things like SNL, right? Or for, say, segments from Shark Tank or actually any sort of reality show come to think of it. So for all the snark that I and others have leveled at Peacock for entering the streaming wars late? I mean, they are bringing some pretty ambitious experiments to the table here. As Matt Singer tweeted, quote, Peacock has a Nicholas Cage section and is therefore the best streaming service to date, end quote. So for the weekend listener,

Colin, episode, I will give you the link to the Zoom meeting on Friday's show. And again, will be recording on Saturday at about 1 p.m. Eastern time, give or take. I've read up on how better to manage things over Zoom, so we hopefully won't get the Zoom bombers again. It might take a little while for me to get that setup, so we might start like at 105 or 110 or something like that. I've also posted a topic thread in the subreddit for you all to submit questions and possible topics ahead of time. You don't have to submit a question. you can still just come on and raise your hand. But the idea would be, as opposed to me just randomly asking for a show of hands,

which I'll still do, as I said, if you actually posted something to the questions slash topics subreddit thread ahead of time, I'll be more likely to call on you during the taping. And also, we might experiment with the thing where people can comment more than once. Like, we'll see if we can keep people on stage, as it were. So if you have more to say, you can do so, and we can get more. more of a round-robin discussion going as opposed to just me popping off one at a time. And finally, I would also like to use the video that we record for posting to YouTube. So keep that in mind if you'd like to participate.

Keep in mind that you might be seen. All right. Talk to you tomorrow.