The Chaser Report - Extra - The Umbrella of the Future

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

What's the thing that's missing from your life? Is it a bluetooth enabled umbrella? If so, then this is the episode for you. Charles Firth joins Nina and Dom to review the Oombrella, the world's most high-tech umbrella. Plus Rebecca De Unamuno brings you the latest news you can't trust.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report, Global World International News Headlines Update with Rebecca Dayunamuno. The Disgraced Chief Executive of Australia Post has been punished after a scandal in which she gave expensive Cartier watches as bonuses to sales executives. A spokesperson for the government said that Australia Post was no place for someone who is involved in passing out dodgy gifts, and she has instead been offered pre-selection in a safe Liberal Party seat. After unprecedented rainfall drenched Uluru over the weekend, One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has today proposed turning the sacred Indigenous landmark into a water park to attract more tourists. Channel 9 has offered to fund the proposed development

with the Accurrent Affair Team on standby for the moment Pauline gets stuck halfway down the slide. Gladys Berrigalian has asked the Anti-Corruption Commission if she can change her defence in relation to disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire. It comes after Rudy Giuliani was caught in an inappropriate pose in a New York hotel room with an actor playing a 15-year-old girl. The New South Wales Premier said she actually wasn't in a relationship with Mr Maguire and that she had just been tucking in her shirt for the last five years.

That's the latest Chaser News. Check outchaser.com.com.com for the latest updates. Now it's time for a trip into the future with Nina, Dom and Chuck. Thanks, Beck, and now it's time for... Welcome to the future. Now, today I've got a product to review that actually addresses a really relatable problem. Have you ever checked weather conditions on your smartphone? Asking yourself whether or not you should take your umbrella with you?

Do you think, have you ever wondered that? Constantly. I do it all the time. I always type in Merrickville weather. It's like one of the first things on my phone. Every morning I ask my phone what the weather's going to be like. Oh, yeah, so people have phones. Well, that might be a problem for this product and thought of the whole you can look up the weather on the phone thing.

But yes, no, but there is a problem that you can't trust forecasts, right? And so the makers pose this question. What if you could trust your umbrella? Okay, so my current smartphone that I don't have to pay extra money to buy has like the Bureau of Meteorology radar that shows if any clouds coming. But no, no, I'll trust the umbrella instead. You know, you also have eyes that can look at the sky and, you know, make a judgment call on how cloudy it is, how clear it is.

I'm more worried about, you know, this person who has trust issues with an animal objects. So you think that's a bit sort of weird? Well, if you're Jeffrey Turbin and you trust, you do in a Zoom camera. Anyway, so it's called the Umbrella. No, it's an umbrella, yeah. It's called the Umbrella. The Umbrella. And do you want me to tell you how?

how it works? Please. No, let's let this guy. Umbrella is a connected umbrella. It sends you alerts on your smartphone when rain is on the way and reminds you to take it with you should you go outside. Now that, that is useful because I always forget my umbrella. Like if this umbrella is going to go, hey, Dom, you've forgot me in the restaurant or something.

Then I'm on board. Yeah, well, it does. That is one of the things it does. Now, so, yeah, and to be honest, I actually think that this has, There are some good things about this product, right? Where, though, do you think it's heading? Like, what are they going to do with, you know, like you go, actually, yeah, an umbrella that sort of monitors, you know, makes sure that you take it with you. Having done this, having done this segment a few times now, are there are several possible shortcomings, I can think, I'm including.

No, no, no, but where, what, what's the extra benefit of an umbrella? What's the added extra? It's going to keep you dry, isn't it? It's going to be the most obvious thing. It keeps you dry. It keeps you dry. It was the little glow. It's about to rain.

Well, no, it is very attractive, though. It's sort of translucent. It's very... Is it Bluetooth friendly? It's definitely got Bluetooth. But no, no, what's the value add here? How are they going to make a billion dollars out of building an umbrella? Does it measure the moisture that falls?

It's got a rain gauge in it? Probably. You know how when you pick up your umbrella after it's been wet for a while, it smells really bad? Like, does it have a little perfume to make it? You're not thinking big enough. You're not thinking like a dot-com billionaire. It's got to... Does it make you a bullet coffee?

No, you're all thinking too small. It collects real-time data such as temperature, pressure, humidity and light. Data is processed and shared with all the umbrella community, allowing everyone to receive hyper-local alerts. It turns it into a social network. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Actually, that's like, you know, Rihanna's some.

you can stand under my umbrella. It should be, you should, you can join my umbrella group, social media group. You should stand under my umbrella. My umbrella. Yeah. Ella. Ella. So, I mean, that is, that is the sales pitch.

It's a social network. And it really does work. Like the Monash University did a review of it. And they went, yeah, it collects data from all around the world. It gives you hyperlocal. It's far more accurate than your phone would ever be. Presumably, if. everyone near you also has an umbrella.

There is that problem. But it's only, um, $127, which these monaignee people were saying, for all the senses that you get, is actually a really good value. Does it connect you with the other people that have the umbrella? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, yeah, like, you share the data, like it shares the data with other people. I mean, like, that would be great because if you paid a hundred and 70. Like Tinder or something. Yeah, or no, well, if you paid $127 for a stupid fucking umbrella, I'm sure you want to call someone about it

and what better person to call about it than someone else that's paid for a stupid expensive umbrella. You should be able to call them on your umbrella. Yeah. It's an amazing icebreaker. Oh, so you're with 127 spare to dollars, so am I. Let's fuck. So do you know why the product is so cheap though?

Did you say cheap? 127. No, but for what you're getting, these university researchers say the sense is worth more than that. That's true that most of the stupid Bluetooth products you bring is, it costs more than $127. Yeah, it's actually relatively good. There's $127 Australian.

That's like two rolls of toilet paper. Why is it so cheap? I think because it's incredibly flimsy and it breaks whenever there's strong winds. No, it's because they also, you know, with all the data they're collecting, they also sell it to advertisers. Oh, God. So they can geolocate. you're going and and that's the actual value that the billionaires are getting out of you.

That's actually really depressing. You've just cast a lot of rain on the parade of this review. Oh, come on, Dom. Just get with the project. I mean, like, you know, Facebook's out of it. This is the social network to go for. We turn your umbrella into a social umbrella. The social umbrella.

It's a social umbrella. I don't know. I mean, like, we laugh at it now, but people used to mock Facebook. You know, people used to mock Mark Zuckerberg sitting in his dorm. Yes. And now he owns the world. Exactly. You just got to think big.

Yeah. So, I dare say, in 20 to 30 years' time, we'll all have these umbrellas. That was a glimpse into the future. Check us out at chaser.com. You give us a three-star review, mate. Give us a hug. If you have an umbrella, Look for Charles.

Yeah, poke me on the umbrella social network.