2020 Daily Tech News Show


1			TITLE: Best Ways To Escape Reality	Guest:

2			Stories subject to change up until showtime
3			Coming up on DTNS Should you take a break from the real world in Animal Crossing or VR? Why not both? Plus a new iPhoen has entered the game and algorithm that can let wearable users know if they're sick before they feel sick.	Twitch Chat
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5			Today's date
6			This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday April 15th, 2020. In LA, I'm Tom Merritt
7			From Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane
8			Scott Johnson
9			And I'm the show's Producer Roger Chang
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11			Get the wider conversation on our expanded show, Good Day Internet by becoming a member at patreon.com/dtns.
12	:31	TM	Let's start with a few tech things you should know...
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14			Quick Hits
15		sl	Amazon has chosen to close its warehouses in France after a French court ordered it to limit its deliveries to food and medical supplies until it can assure better safety measures for its workers. The closure will start April 16 and last until at least April 20. Employees will be paid during the shutdown through the state partial unemployment scheme. Amazon employs 10,000 people at six French warehouses.	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-france/amazon-plans-to-appeal-french-ruling-limiting-trade-to-essential-goods-idUSKCN21X192
16		scott	The US. Department of Defense's Inspector General announced it could find no evidence to suggest the White House intervened in the awarding of the JEDI (short for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) cloud contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon. The Inspector General added that they could not review the matter fully as some information was unavailable under presidential communications privilege. The JEDI contract will modernize IT operations at the Pentagon for a cost of up to $10 billion over ten years. Microsoft got the contract on October 25 and Amazon filed a lawsuit over the decision in November.	https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/pentagon-watchdog-says-white-house-didnt-influence-jedi-contract-decision.html
17		tm	Google emailed users of Nest cameras, telling them it is lowering the video quality of the cams to help limit how much bandwidth they use. Users will get a notification from the Nest app when the quality is adjusted. Users can reset the resolution to a higher setting if they wish.	https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/14/21221423/google-nest-camera-reduce-video-quality-bandwidth-covid-19-pandemic
18		sl	Google is rolling out a new Kids section for the US Google Play Store for apps that are deemed “Teacher Approved” by high teacher ratings along with reasons why teachers like the app, age-appropriateness, and what it's hoping to teach children. Google says it moved up the already-planned launch since so many kids are home and in front of screens. Google expects to launch the Kids section internationally in the coming months.	https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/15/21221830/google-play-kids-section-teacher-approved-educational-apps
19		scott	Epic Games says it will extend the current season of Fortnite. Season 3 was expected to arrive in two weeks. New features will be added to the current season instead.	https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52289373
20		tm	Apple began taking orders for its Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro. The keyboard connects magnetically to an iPad Pro with the ability to adjust the viewing angle up to 130 degrees. The Magic Keyboard costs $299 for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $349 for 12.9-inch, shipping next week.	https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/15/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-pro-now-available-to-order-ships-next-week/
21			Let's talk a little more about...
22	:34	sl	Apple announced the iPhone SE. It has a 4.7-inch screen and home button with TouchID, similar to the iPhone 8. However it has a 12-megapixel camera lens on the back the same A13 Bionic chip that's inside the iPhone 11. It supports 4K video at 60 fps. And it supports 18W fast charging, WiFi 6, Gigabit LTE and dual SIM - one slot, one eSIM. The 64 GB iPhone SE costs $399, the 128 GB version $449 and 256 GB version $549 in black white or red. Preorders begin Friday April 17 shipping April 24.	https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/15/21221918/iphone-se-announcement-apple-price-specs-release-date-features
23	:37	scott	Amazon sent a notice to affiliates that it will adjust referral commission rates starting April 21. Amazon regularly adjusts referral rates and many businesses, especially web publishers, rely on the referrals for income. Referrals for furniture and home improvement products goes from 8% to 3%. Grocery referrals goes from 5% to 1%. Rates were also lowered for Baby products, health and personal care, sports and more. No rates were raised.	https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/amazon-slashes-commission-rates-for-affiliate-program.html
24	:41	tm	Ecobee launched a home monitoring platform called Haven. Haven has a feature called Autopilot that brings data from all Ecobee devices, like thermostats and SmartSensors and adjusts settings based on your behaviors. That includes arming and disarming the alarm, adjusting the temp or turning cameras on and off. Haven works with Amazon Voice Services and HomeKit and will add SmartThings and Google Assistant support later. Ecobee also released an Amazon-compatible SmartCamera for $179 and SmartSensors that cost $79 for two. The Haven platform costs $5 a month for one device or $10 a month for unlimited devices.	https://www.engadget.com/ecobee-smart-home-camera-door-contacts-home-monitoring-platform-130007827.html
25	:44	sl	Stanford Medicine researchers are developing algorithms that spot coronavirus symptoms in data collected by wearable devices. The algorithms will have the ability to sort through the hundreds of thousands of measurements that get logged each day, and note changes in heart rate or temperature that indicate the body’s fighting an infection, and have the device send the user an alert. Stanford will collect data from five different wearable devices that will shape each algorithm, including a smart ring and a range of smartwatches. Fitbit is donating 1,000 smartwatches to the cause and will recruit research participants from its 30 million+ users, and scientists from biomedical institute Scripps Research will help Fitbit track how the infection spreads through a community.	https://thenextweb.com/neural/2020/04/15/stanford-teams-up-with-fitbit-to-develop-wearables-that-detect-coronavirus-symptoms/
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27			PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE
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29			Discussion Story
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31	:47		people like animal crossing	https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-14/nintendo-s-animal-crossing-is-the-biggest-hit-of-the-lockdown
32			How to See the World When You’re Stuck at Home	https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/travel/coronavirus-virtual-travel.html
33			VR Travel content	https://technology.inquirer.net/98255/virtual-travel-offers-escape-during-quarantine
34			Escape The Reality Of Quarantine With These Transportative Virtual Reality Games	https://www.forbes.com/sites/solrogers/2020/04/09/escape-the-reality-of-quarantine-with-these-transportative-virtual-reality-games/#50f6b43ecbc4
35			Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched March 20 causing Switch sales records (and shortages) Sold 1.88 million packaged copies in Japan in its first three days, more than Super Smash Bros. sold in its first two weeks. Now more than 3 million domestic sales. And that's physical copies. That doesn't include digital. Nintendo sold more than 390,000 Switch units in Japan the week AC:NH came out. And then 280,000 the next week. It's selling faster than at launch. (Switches are being built in Vietnam) Installs of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (mobile) have grown 7 times over the past month according to SensorTower. Eileen's company has an Animal Crossing Slack channel for trading tips and in-game items. [[TALK ABOUT AC:NH]]	Animal Crossing is just one way people are escaping reality through tech. Author Reif Larsen in the New York Times suggests taking a trip in Google Street View. Larsen describes narrating a family vacation like a dungeon master. Major telecommunication companies in Korea including SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus offer VR services that include travel content. SKT reported a 41.7 percent increase in the VR travel content usage in their VR app, “Jump VR,” for the month of March compared to January. Sol Rogers at Forbes writes about VR experiences to take you away from your home Moss- you play as a mouse on an adventure to solve puzzles and save the world. First Steps - Basic but beautiful free tutorial for Oculus Quest. Bonfire - Space Scout 817 ion a mission to discover a new home for the human race. Job Simulator - Pretend you can still work in an office. Bait - Fishing.
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42		tm	Let's check out the mailbag
43	:56		Mailbag (feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com)
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45		sl	Amos says - Inspired by Patrick Norton's story of folding during yesterday's preshow, and as suggested in chat by kip030, I created a Good Day Internet folding team. (URL in our show notes) to stats, find the team number and join: Let's see how quickly Team GDI can get 1 million points!	https://bit.ly/gdifolding
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47			I took my old Pixel 1XL, cleaned off most of the apps, then side loaded the Folding@Home app from the website. (It isn't available on the app store.) Hooked it up to my home wifi, plugged it in, now it's running protein folding calculations 24/7. It isn't a gaming machine with massive RAM and a high powered CPU & GPU, but there are a lot of old phones out there. Tom
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49			We have Comcast and today's the 15th so I tried to access the new Peacock service, unfortunately I quickly discovered I have to have Comcast's streaming service called Flex to get it. After going through the steps to sign up for Flex it looks like it would double my current plan (adds $110) so I think I'll wait for July. - thatcharliedude
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55	:58	sl	Thanks to... Scott Johnson	frogpants.com
56			Patron Thank You	http://www.dailytechnewsshow.com/support
57		tm	Achewillow. A storytelling podcast from author JF Dubeau and podcaster Amy Frost. Miriam DuFour, a French Canadian woman discovers a strange landscape of subtle magics, bizarre people, coffee, the occasional demon, and baked goods in the town of Achewillow.	https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/achewillow/id1485121214
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63		sl	Our email address is feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com! We're live M-F at 4:30 PM eastern/20:30 UTC find out more at dailytechnewsshow.com/live.
64		tm	Plug tomorrow's guest: Justin Robert Young	Good Night Rob
65			END OF SHOW
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68			STOP DISCORD Stream
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70			POST GDI	What’s on an Effingham Sandwich?