2019 Daily Tech News Show


1	:00		TITLE: The Half Life of VR	Guest:

2			Stories subject to change up until showtime
3			Coming up on DTNS Teaching self-driving cars to understand humans, how likely it is that Chine could become a chip powerhouse, and preparing for Valve to give you a new Half-Life in VR.	Twitch Chat
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5			Today's date
6			This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday Nov 19th, 2019. In LA, I'm Tom Merritt
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8			Patrick Beja
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		tm	Spotify lauched its Your Daily Podcast playlist, giving listeners a daily automated list of podcasts they may like. After testing, Your Daily Podcast is rolling out to users in the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Spotify's algorithm mixes podcasts that people already follow along with its own recommendations.	https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/19/spotify-turns-its-personalization-technology-to-podcasts-with-launch-of-your-daily-podcasts/
16		pb	Berlin-based Enway raised €6M in seed funding to continue to develop autonomous cleaning vehicles. The autonomous street and ground cleaners are initially targeted for use on private grounds like warehouses, industrial facilities and private parking lots.	http://www.finsmes.com/2019/11/enway-raises-e6m-in-seed-funding.html
17		tm	Germany's Hahn Air announced it issued the first airline tickets to be handled using a blockchain from open-source travel distribution platform Winding Tree. Three passengers, employees of Hahn Air and Winding Tree, flew on the blockchain-issued tickets from Dusseldorf to Luxembourg. The Winding Tree blockchain is able to list inventory, manage reservation requests, and receive payment in cash, credit card, or the lif or ether tokens. Winding Tree is also working with Air Canada, Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and Swissport as well as Nordic Choice Hotels, citizenM Hotel chain, and Airport Hotel Basel.	https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blockchain-airlines-hahn-air/german-airline-hahn-air-issues-first-blockchain-based-tickets-idUKKBN1XS1TC
18		pb	Amazon announced the Fire TV Blaster, an IR blaster to control your other TV hardware using Amazon Voice Services through a Fire TV. The Fire TV blaster is a small box that connects to other Fire TV products by WiFi. It's available for preorder, shipping December 11 for $35 to bundled with a Fire TV 4K streaming stick and Echo Dot for $80.	https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/19/20972273/amazon-fire-tv-blaster-echo-alexa-price-release-date-features-control
19		tm	Microsoft made a blog post Monday announcing plans to support for encrypted Domain Name System queries. Windows Core Networking will first support DNS over HTTPS with Microsoft open to support DNS over TLS in the future. Microsoft did not say when the first implementations will arrive for Windows Insiders.	https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/microsoft-announces-plans-to-support-encrypted-dns-requests-eventually/
20		pb	Amazon extended the free ad-supported version of its streaming service to Android, iOS, Fire TV, and the Web in Germany, the UK and the US. The service has about 2 million songs, and free users can start stations based on a song or access playlists like All Hits or Holiday Favorites.	https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/19/amazon-makes-its-music-streaming-service-free-with-ads/
21			Let's talk a little more about...
22	:34	tm	The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has released answers it received from Google Facebook, Amazon and Apple in response to an antitrust investigation. Google denied favoring its own services over competitors specifically saying YouTube results are not weighted above others and Google Docs is designed to work well in all browsers. Facebook acknowledged cutting off third-party apps that replicated its core functionalities, citing Vine as an example. Apple answered questions about its browser and app store commissions. And Amazon denied using merchant data to launch source or price its own private-label products. US Senators Chris Coons and Josh Hawley today sent a letter to Facebook asking the company how, exactly, it tracks users' locations—even when location access and location history are disabled. The letter refers to Facebook admitting in a blog post that it "may still understand your location using things like check-ins, events, and information about your Internet connection." Facebook has until December 12 to respond.	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tech-antitrust/google-facebook-amazon-and-apple-offer-defense-in-congressional-antitrust-probe-idUSKBN1XT28X?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
23			--	https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/senators-ask-if-facebook-really-lets-users-opt-out-of-location-tracking/
24	:37	pb	Microsoft announced its Teams communication app (and Slack competitor) now has more than 20 million daily active users up from 13 million in July. Microsoft offers Teams as a free add-on for Office 365 users. In October, Slack said its app had 12 million daily active users. Also in October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said more than 350 organizations have at least 10,000 people using Teams.	https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/19/microsoft-teams-reaches-20-million-daily-active-users.html
25	:39	tm	Ars Technica reports on work published in PNAS from scientists at MIT and Delft University fo Technology to help Autonomous Vehicles understand the intentions of other motorists. The scientists used four categories of social values. Altruists who maximize other drivers enjoyment, prosocial who try to benefit all other drivers, individualists who maximize their own benefit and competitive, who want to have a better experience than other drivers. The AI was then trained how to recognize which of the four types of driving was being used and project what such a driver might do next. With the system in place autonomous vehicles were more accurate at predicting merging behavior, with errors dropping by 25%.	https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/giving-autonomous-cars-a-theory-of-mind-improves-their-integration/
26	:43	pb	Dating App the League, which uses LinkedIn to verify users, is launching a feature called League Live. User who opt in will get automatically paired with three people for two-minute video "dates" in the app that take place Sundays at 9 PM. The sessions start with an ice breaker question. If both people "heart" each other they are officially matched by the service to pursue an in-person date. In beta tests the service was liked best by people between 35 and 40 years old and outside more populated areas. League Live starts December 1.	https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/19/20967166/the-league-live-video-dating-app-launch
27	:46	tm	The BBC has a report on efforts in China to become self-sufficient in chip production. China produces 16% of the semiconductors its companies use but the government has set targets of 40% by 2020 and 70% by 2025. The plan dates back to meetings in May 2018, shortly after the US restricted trade with ZTE, a restriction that has since been lifted. In October this year the Chinese government created a $29 billion fund to support its semiconductor industry. Chinese companies also need to products that selling non-Chinese markets. AI researcher and tech historian Piero Scaruffi estimates China may be up to 10 years behind companies like TSMC. While China lacks the industry experience and equipment to manufacture high end chips, Huawei has competitive chip design. But university engineer in Hong Kong Patrick Yue, whose work is partly funded by Huawei, believes Huawei is replicating the successful business model of Apple or Samsung. Huawei's handset business president, Li Changzhu told the BBC Huawei has no problem using other vendors chipsets, saying "We use the best chipsets to satisfy our customers". Scaruffi believes China's advantage is in implementing technology, not creating it.	https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50287485
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32			Discussion Story
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34	:50		This Thursday at 10 AM pacific, Valve will announce Half-Life: Alyx, a flagship VR game. The Verge's Sean Hollister notes the announcement comes two years and nine months after Valve promised three full-length VR games, and more than a decade after the last new Half-Life game.	https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/18/20971514/valve-announces-half-life-alyx-its-first-flagship-vr-game
35			To prepare for this momentous day in VR gaming, Patrick will bring us up to speed on the history and signifigance of Half Life and what this may or may not mean for VR.
36			- Half Life 3 is the most anticipated game in gaming History. - Players have been asking for it for 10 years, and it is the biggest gaming meme. - Half Life 2 was also the game that launched Steam. - Half Life: Alyx isn't Half Life 3, but it is still a significant title because of that.
37			- VR started off slow, on both the hardware and software sides. - Traditionally, hardware doesn't take off without a killer app. - Hardware has improved significantly in the past couple of years. - There have been a few "good" VR games in the past couple of years. - But no killer app...
38			Will Half Life: Alyx be THE thing games want a VR headset for?
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44		tm	Let's check out the mailbag
45	:56		Mailbag (feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com)
46			On yesterday's Stadia discussion- The fundamental question I still don't know the answer to is who is the person who needs to game so much that they need to be able to do it on literally any screen and are willing to pay $10 a month (or as I like to think about it, $120/year) but are ok with lag and other downsides of streaming. I'm a casual gamer who probably spends under $100 on games and the service intrigued me, but it's the constantly accruing costs that turned me off. I hope it succeeds, but a $10 monthly access charge for content I've purchased seems too steep. Mike from Uncharacteristically Soggy Riyadh
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56	:58	sl	Thanks to... Patrick Beja	frenchspin.com
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65		tm	Plug tomorrow's guest: Scott Johnson	Good Night Rob
66			END OF SHOW
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71			POST GDI	Too Many Shows!