Microsoft buys Bethesda, Apple Watch SE review | Engadget Podcast Live By Engadget

Um good morning, everybody welcome to our live recording of the Engadget podcast, I'm senior editor defend hardware, and I'm joined with Sherwin Lowe. Our reviews' editor, hey Sherwin, hello and Ben Hellman, our producer hello. This is going to be a fun episode because uh, it's just a little a little of news. Microsoft just bought a tiny, tiny little developer called Bethesda. So we're going to be diving into that um. Well, actually, they bought animal media, which is the parent company, and they own all bunch of stuff.

So there's all of that uh. Thank you. So much for joining us live uh. We will be recording the podcast actually right now too. So you may hear some behind the scenes.

Stuff happening, don't freak out and in between some sections we will do live audience. Q, a's so stuck around for that drop your questions in the chat or uh. You can tweet us at Engadget with the hashtag podcast live, so Ben will be looking at all those things. So we get some nice back and forth with you guys, um show Lynn Ben. Are you guys good to go? Yeah, quick hello to everyone.

That's already here, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, uh, as always too. If you're joining us for these live streams, that's great, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or wherever uh. That's super helpful leave us a review on iTunes. That's all great yeah people tend to dip in and dip out, yeah and so like. If you came for a certain segment but weren't able to see that or want to see everything around your favorite segment, that's the podcast is the best way to hear all of that.

It'll also sound, better yeah, yes, it'll, it'll, probably sound a little better, and it's on literally everywhere that you could get podcasts uh as of about 7 30 or 8 eastern uh on Friday, every good Friday morning bonus for everybody. So hey, quick behind the scenes notes for everybody. Now we didn't just want to remind Ben and dev that we didn't record room tone right before we didn't know. Yeah, we'll want to do that later, yeah, a little pressed for time as we were waiting for people to appear, I'm looking at one person. Yeah, right, like you, were the one giving us all kinds of bug, problems with your silly little setup.

Sure Lynn loves to show up 10 minutes before we start recording live. I don't love you wow all the time at the live stream. Okay, are we good to go? Yes? I just want to like since the show is packed. Let's just make sure to like play. The hits play the hits, yeah and also yeah.

Don't we don't need to spend time on some like the tiny things' Amazon will be talking briefly about the Amazon event? That's going to happen today, but that's literally happening once we end. So we can only talk so much about that. Uh, the Samsung Galaxy impact stuff Sherwin. You know you can streamline whatever there for, for the people who are on the live stream will be. You know, answering your questions in between segments and at the end of the show, like so questions about the Apple Watch, s e and anything else we talked about today or anything in like anything.

Okay, we are good to go: let's go and yeah actually can we do a quick slate, because we didn't even do a slate, what sleep he means um, so, starting in three two one: okay, close enough: it's fine! Okay, all right hit it when you're ready, what's up internet, what's up internet and welcome back to the Engadget podcast, I'm senior editor Davina hardware and reviews editor Sherwin Lowe this week. It is about a lot of things, but it is Microsoft, dropping some of the biggest news not just of the week but of the year uh monumental, news about them, buying zinnias media, the parent company of Bethesda and all the studios that they're a part of that. It's just insane news uh. We will be diving into all that Sherwin will be talking about the Apple Watch. Se.

I believe it's. Your first Apple Watch that you're reviewing Sherwin right. My first apple review whatsoever. Oh wow, yeah, that's a big step um, but yeah. We got Shirin over from the android side over from the dark side for the playing with an Apple Watch and uh.

It is funny to see Shirin um actually enjoying this piece of you know stable consumer electronics, so we will be diving into all of that. As always, if you're enjoying the show, please be sure to subscribe to the gadget podcast on iTunes or your podcaster of choice, leave us a review on iTunes. That's super helpful, and you could drop us a note at podcast gadget. com. We record live typically every Thursday around 10 a.

m. Eastern, so join us on our YouTube channel. For that let me just take a sip of water, here's being weird, okay, so some surprise Microsoft, wow, wow. So let me tell you guys about my Monday morning. I got up.

I made coffee. Furthermore, I figured it'd be a pretty quiet week, because things were super busy. Last week, um 9am struck and just a little piece of news dropped, Microsoft, buying animal media Bethesda, and this is insane news and if you're not a gamer, I can understand it's like. Oh, this. This just sounds like a media holding company which it is, but it's a media company.

It's a media company that contains some of the biggest and most interesting game developers around, including, but that's the game, studios um, you know they're the ones behind all sorts of uh. Like the Elder Scrolls games, they've got fallout um in software, the originators of the first person, shooter they've, got doom arcane, uh they're a smaller developer, but they made the dishonored series which I love. So much machine games is behind the new Wallenstein reboot, which are excellent. Tango game works is a Japanese developer. That's made the evil within, and it's produced by Shinji Miami the Resident Evil creator.

So this is huge and this news came um a day before Xbox Series X and s pre-orders went live too so talk about a combo of you know pr of monumental partnership news or a huge acquisition. Just getting people excited for buying these next generation systems. I was a bit floored by this um. I wrote up an editorial about it too, because there's a lot going on with this deal, and we've talked a bit before about how game pass is kind of Microsoft's killer feature now, especially for these next generation consoles, so game pass um yeah, it's their first service, uh 10 bucks a month you can get access to a library of over 100 games, some ea play games, and now they confirmed it's going to be- is going to contain these games from these studios too, or at least the Bethesda games um, because they're all owned by Microsoft. That is just a ton of content that you know you'll be able to play, and the thing I really go on about too by the way is Xbox um uh.

Was it x back but sorry? The thing I really go on about is a game pass unlimited. It is the super game pass that is 15 bucks a month that includes Xbox, uh live, and it also includes game pass for both PC and consoles. So there's a lot there's just so much going on there. Sure Lynn does any of this mean anything to you, because I'm, I'm still processing this news. Yeah, you said uh when you were introducing this news, that if I'm not a gamer, maybe I want to I'm not a gamer really, and I still knew that this was huge news, a because, like I've even heard of the name Bethesda, even as a non-gamer um, but that's probably because, like I hang out with a lot of gamer people, um and it was making the rounds on Twitter as well so yeah, it's a big deal.

I know have said in previous episodes that I'm considering buying my first gaming console this year, the Xbox Series S was the one I was you know advised to get, and now one of the criticisms against it or one of the arguments to go for PS instead of Microsoft was that maybe PS titles might be more fun for me to play, and so now, with this like out in the open and assuming that some of these big titles will be added to the Xbox game, pass thing. This definitely seems like the way to go for me if I could get a pre-order in I'm, not good luck with that, so they also yeah. They kicked off pre-orders this week too, and Microsoft's whole thing was a lot more organized because they didn't just like to dump the news on Twitter and Jeff Kelley's. You know Twitter feed, it was just like hey. They said I think it was like 10 or 11 a.

m. On Tuesday, it's going to be at these sites. Go there try to get your order in it worked for a lot of people. I know it's always a mess, especially for such an in-demand product, so it was messy, but it was nowhere near like the disaster. The PlayStation pre-orders were last week when people were just scrambling.

Things were all over the place like nothing really made sense, so we had to issue an apology sort of yeah uh. No, it didn't seem like we were on to a good start here, but hey just crazy news and uh the game pass thing by the way it's game pass ultimate, not unlimited. I always get that mixed up um, but this is really here's the key right this. This acquisition just brings all these games some of the biggest franchises around within this game subscription service, which is relatively inexpensive and um there. There are potential downsides to that too.

I do feel, like Microsoft may start playing the exclusivity, uh game yeah, the exclusive game thing that Sony has been doing for a while too, which I think is not great for gamers: it's not great for consumers, it's nice for a company to say, like hey, I have Final Fantasy 16 for the next year exclusively, which PlayStation 5 will because they debuted that in the trailer a couple of weeks ago, um- that's not great for gamers, who only have you know an Xbox One, yeah or another system, so I do think we're moving to a stage where game exclusives kind of need to stop uh. But then again I think Microsoft has long been criticized for not having this killer. Exclusives, like Sony, does um so now that they actually have these free. These franchises. Who knows? What's going to happen um, you know some quick updates.

Uh, they did say some of the games that were already basically scheduled to be um to be exclusive. On PlayStation 5 will still be there like they're, going to honor those deals, so that includes uh. Was it Tokyo, the next game from tango game works and the next game from arcane? Those are still going to be limited exclusives on PlayStation, even though they're owned by Microsoft, which is hilarious, it's a contract thing, it has to be like they've got yeah. We can't yeah money's already changed hands. The contract is already set, so that's that makes sense yeah, but they did say.

Microsoft said that they will take future titles like making future titles cross-platform on a game by game basis, which could mean, like the future like a future doom or future Elder Scrolls, may only be on Xbox for a while and that's a potential danger there um. That's all in my editorial about all this, because I think this puts Microsoft on a path that is potentially dangerous. I think it's exciting. If you care about the business side of things, it could be dangerous when it comes to the consolidation of media and having so many developers in so many games under one company. Is that something that worries you Sherwin? I think that uh, the exclusivity thing I know, is like a business strategy, but I do think why don't like making it available on more platforms should mean more money right, it should mean more people are able to buy it.

The truth. No, that should be the way to go. I think for the biggest games that will probably be what happens and then such an adult, I think, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that their goal is to be you know, kind of work with the ecosystem and have their content be broadly available right, and that's really what he's been pushing Microsoft towards like not just building Windows phones, they gave up on Windows phones, but they built their apps for iOS and android to really get you know, get their services out there because it matters more. If people are paying Microsoft, you know monthly, yeah or annual subscription sheet for office than if they buy Microsoft's phones, and we're waiting to see if kind of the same thing will happen for Xbox. I do think game pass, puts Microsoft in a good place to basically continue that um and yeah if they sell copies, even without game pass if they sell copies on PlayStation, 5 or wherever, that's still ultimately good for Microsoft, exactly um yeah.

So this is a long, confusing thing um. Surely you had joked that this is sort of like Microsoft, couldn't get ticktock, and we'll talk a little more about what happened to ticktock but hey. This is a fun consolation right, yeah yeah! We couldn't buy tickets yeah, so here 's's Bethesda instead offering another plate. I think that's uh, just looking at the timing of things that yeah, that seems kind of funny, I think we've learned that this deal in particular has been in the works, for you know several months since I believe before the summer and for the past few years, Microsoft has also been rumored to be. You know trying to buy some major studios.

I believe cap com was a really strong rumor for a while um, which would be kind of amazing, and honestly they could still do that um, but cap com also uh they had what was it monster hunter world was such a huge success for them. I believe one of the, if not the biggest, you know best-selling game of all time, um street fighter. When I hear cap com, it's not been selling, so I know not lately but monster hunter. That's like the game. I grew up, yeah, yeah, yeah, so Ben.

I know you're a PC gamer been our producer um. Do you have any thoughts about what's going on here, I'm actually more of a console gamer than a gamer, but uh? I think the interesting thing here. I was just thinking, as you were saying: uh Microsoft needs exclusives. That, when was I introduced to the entire concept of the Xbox, it was about 2002 2003, maybe 2004, and it was with um halo, yeah halo exclusive on the Xbox was really, really consequential and, as the main halo trilogy has gone through its motions, and it passed on to 343. We talked about how 343 has not been doing as great a job keeping up the halo legacy as um bungee did.

It makes sense that Microsoft would be looking for something to really like to put that much more value proposition into their console or yes, reinforce the value proposition of possible exclusives for their console yeah, and this is a little different from just like halo right, because halo was. That was an in-house thing. It was built by bungee and they brought in bungee because they bungee was making. Was it marathon, I believe, for max in the 90s, so they brought in bungee to do this, but halo was a property. You know that premiered on the Xbox.

That was a big thing uh all these other games, uh Wallenstein, doom uh Elder Scrolls. These are things that we're used to seeing on PC and elsewhere and other consoles for it to just be in Microsoft. That's uh! That's an interesting change. It's potentially you know bad change for Sony, because it means that they're going to have to start working with Microsoft to get these games, but uh yeah, it just seems crazy. This is a deal on the level of uh like the Disney Pixar relationship.

I believe this is this. Was a seven billion dollar plus deal, so it was more than Disney played for uh Lucasfilm yeah yeah, so we were talking about that in the production meeting yesterday, and so I looked up some numbers and actually so yes, this is significantly larger than quasars, because quasars was about Lucas is different. Yeah, okay, yeah quasars is a subsidiary uh. I don't think they exist anymore, but yeah. Okay, I'm thinking about Star Wars, about the 90s, the empire for 2064.

Excuse me, but I so the scale of the Lucasfilm deal was about one, maybe one and a half billion dollars, and so this is more on the scale of Disney Pixar. As you said, it's actually very, very similar um. I think this deal with Bethesda was about 7.4 billion and the Disney Pixar deal was 7.5 billion so like what is a hundred million dollars, this film thing was four billion by the way, but yeah yeah. That it is all big money like money. What does any of this thing matter? You know when we're talking about billions of dollars, but yeah.

This is a huge freaking deal. Um we're going to see the impact of this acquisition for years. This is a sea change in the way the game industry works, so it'll be interesting, um listeners I want to know too does this affect how you're you're thinking of the next generation consoles email us at podcastandgatch. com, we'd love to be chatting about this, there's just so much to get excited about and so much to get worried about too anything else for Lynn or Ben. No, I just gonna, maybe buy Xbox.

I guess okay yeah, and we want to hear what you have to say in the chat like. Are you looking forward to the possibility of playing the next Elder Scrolls game just on the Xbox, for maybe about a year and a half before it goes to steam before it goes to PS5 um? What I want to play is the alien resurrection game. I mean you can't play that. I believe that is on game pass too. So that will be hot.

I hear it was terrifying, and I really want to be terrified. It's perfect. I want to be terrified in this day and age. I always want to be terrified. Furthermore, I've watched so many horror movies the last weekend.

It's a good. It's a good way to feel you know it's a good way to feel something: yeah yeah. Well, no, you're, basically preparing yourself for the horrors of life. Yeah, yes, or I learned how to scare others by letting myself be scared. I don't know what it whatever it is.

That's definitely part of it. Do we have any audience questions, or should we just move? No, no audience questions right now. I do think that, like the big value proposition is past present and future yeah for um game pass ultimate the fact that you could just say, oh, I think I want to play a little of fallout 3 and then just immediately do that just immediately do that and yeah we were not even going to like the cloud stuff, where this is probably a future episode, but it seems like where Microsoft is going. You will not need a console or even a PC, because if you just have like a mobile device or tablet or if the cloud stuff goes, the that app just needs to be on TVs or other devices, because it's just a little video feed, you could play games on anything uh and from my experience so far x cloud is really great and low latency. So yeah, it's like a big thing: go ahead Ben yeah, so we do have a couple of things from the chat.

They said that at 10, so Bahama in the chat says that 10 or 15 a month game pass four game passes at 15 million subs they're going to be earning 1.8 to 2.7 billion a year. Keeping games exclusive to gamer pass, would increase, increase their subscriber base and then jay is agreeing with that because he calculated the same thing he's like with the money that they paid for Bethesda they'll, make it back in about four years for sure, and they by the way they went from 10 to 15 million game pass subscribers since April, like they confirmed 50 million this week, but that was since April that that growth has happened, and certainly with the new consoles. All of this is going to explode. Uh. The hardware is not the point here.

I think that's the ultimate story right. It is a subscription. It is the idea that you're going to just keep paying Microsoft forever. I think on you know. Initially it does seem like a better deal than spending 60 bucks on a single new game.

You know for 60 bucks, you get what four months you know you get a good chunk of time with game pass um and if you're not doing ultimate, then it's 10 bucks a month. You know so you get even more um yeah. This is a new era for gaming and that's by the way, that's kind of how I game. I don't know about you guys, but I'll buy a title, and then I play it like hardcore for a month and then forget about it. You played obsessively yeah, yeah like when I was into animal crossing forgot the title it was like I mean I was super into it and then now we're like three months into the pandemic.

I just stopped playing all together, and it feels like a waste to throw that forty dollars down and then not be playing it anymore. So for sure I totally agree, the subscription weight seems to be the way to go. Yeah. I think for a lot of people uh, the only downside is you don't really own your games and some games could leave the service eventually Netflix style, but then at that point you can still just buy them right, yeah we're this is all new territory. So it does save your save files like locally, and so you could just purchase the game, it saves them locally and in the cloud too, like if you're on good yeah, I believe, if you're on, if you have uh, you know Xbox multiplayer, you also get cloud save, so that's all part of it.

So the only asterisk that I would put on the 15 million subscriber figures that you said uh for game pass ultimate is now just, just like. Every ultimate is a separate thing: yeah yeah, okay, um, like everything else in this weird world during this weird year, how much of a pandemic um thing do we have to um or like pandemic premium? Do we have to put on this number? You know did more people subscribe because they know that they're going to be spending way more time at home, and it's a better investment, because you can go catch up on all the games. You missed over the past couple of years, so it is a good way to play a lot of games without spending much up front, so yeah yeah, certainly the pandemic helped, and I'm pretty sure, like the new generation consoles, will certainly be a big push there too. Okay, so we're doing a quick hit about oracle and tick, took now sure for sure. Okay.

So we briefly mentioned that hey Microsoft didn't end up getting ticktock like a lot of our reporting and a lot of the drama around this really that's where this all started so now, tick-tock is partially owned by oracle and Walmart question mark so strange. It's its a very weird turn of events. I wasn't expecting this to be the ending of the story, but uh there we go. What was it like? Twenty percent is healthy pride they're, both getting a 20 investment stake in the newly formed tick, took, global company and oracle is going to be tick, took's, secure cloud provider uh. Basically, you know the there.

There is no shutdown um. The president has basically approved the deal in concept uh, although he was trying to find kickbacks from it because of course, um get money out of it. Yeah yeah, so hey tick, rocks, tick, took's, still around um. Now what officially owned by or Walmart. I guess my question to our listener and our live viewers is.

Does this make you feel better about tick-tock now? Are you more likely to use it now that it's partially owned by oracle and Walmart, which, by the way most major retailers like this, have been collecting your data for like longer than the digital revolution so enjoy that I have to go um there was a. There was a great quote from Larry Ellison who's, the billionaire. You know in char, the billionaire CEO of oracle and uh. He had a great quote too, that just sounded like of old guy. Trying to you know basically be with the young man.

It's like well, not even be with the young people. Oh yes, tick! Took! Will you know our global cloud platform is certainly you know fitting for tick, rocks blah blah blah blah blah? It just sounded like oh. This is. This is one of the people now in charge of the know the social network that is so popular with the youths? Clearly, this all makes sense. You know he knows.

What's up with the kids, I just found it hilarious, yep. Okay enough about this. I don't want to talk about TikTok for a while. Unless something interesting happens, but hey it's still around um, you know yeah, well we'll dive deeper into what you all in America is not over yeah, but the good news is for now it seems like American users can still perform their dance challenges and share them on tick. Took uh.

But hopefully you want to be careful about when you watch the service right, defend you're, sharing like a disturbing story about the content that sometimes surfaces on on on tick, took yeah I mean we've talked about the power of tick-tock as the power of the algorithm and the way the algorithm. Can you know what can get popular in TikTok is not just super popular people kind of followers, but be a small thing from an account with very few followers that the algorithm lifts and brings to other accounts and people share and share and share yada uh? The problem is this account. This algorithm is so good. It's also kind of uncontrollable, and I think, a couple of weeks ago there was a story of a guy who committed suicide on tick-tock on well. No, he is was Facebook live, the video made it over to TikTok, and it just kept getting shared and shared and shared, and people would like to put in filler opening video so that you, wouldn't you couldn't tell that's where it was going whoa and then like clip in the stuff at the end.

So all this stuff, like anything in the media and social media, there's potential for abuse and this algorithm, you know tick. Took- is trying to stop this video, but they had a hard time doing it because they can't control directly the algorithm you can't just because of the way yeah because of the way tech doc is built around sharing and resharing and constant, like constant sharing like that, it is tough to just stop one thing: if people are re-badging, it's changing the video a little or changing the music. So that's a potential downside um. I hope the company is looking at that situation, because every social network has dealt with this. It's not just them, but it does seem like they're vitality.

It's like a viral engine that is uncontrollable, so yeah, who knows if they can get some control over that eventually, do you want to talk about your Apple Watch? That's the e, because I'm interested in um, your very first uh conference, apple review. Basically, oh, it's an it's an it's a's! It's an experience! It is it's like a soccer. That's so polished and shiny. It's not crashing all the time, don't tell people. I admitted that no I'm kidding um yeah.

This is my first review of an Apple Watch. I've had limited experience with apple watches in the past, and you know I'm the lead wearables reviewer on Engadget, and we've been trying to make sure that I get like you know, yeah significant time with an Apple Watch for a while, because it's only fair, and it's it will inform my experience with other devices. So I have the Apple Watch SE. This is a 40 millimeter uh size with a braided solo loop, and it's gosh, gosh, it's nice. I uh I've.

I've said before that. Furthermore, I know and am aware and actually believe, that the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch in the space, but now having spent an extended, spend it having spent an extended amount of time with the steer, the watch SE. I see why I like I get it. It's clicking like every other. Smartwatch has died, and only apple has survived yeah.

Well, there are certain things that I think Samsung does better. The ti zen OS is just easier to use, there's fewer like things you need to do to get to like a widget, for example. I want to I want to add my you know: water intake or something um, but what really is great about Apple Watch's ecosystem. Is that oh, my gosh, hey, this thing flies it's really fast b. It works so well with like your iPhone.

Um Siri is pretty smart with watch OS. Seven they've moved certain like uh dictation, like the on dictation's moved on device, so the processing is just so fast. Siri is also really accurate at understanding what I'm saying, which is uh surprising, but by the way, the worst theory you had to like when you did hit Siri on the Apple Watch, it would hit your iPhone like it would go back to the phone to kind of do the work and there was always delay with that. It was always it's straight up, like um, my dreams of being uh, Michael knight, in knight writer. Just like talking to my watch my robots, uh yeah, it's coming true, your smartwatch dreams are coming true, and I think that, like every review that I do, I have a moment where I kind of sit, and I'm like what am I going to like what is the message right, and that was my message which was like what is this watch? What does this watch represent and for a lot of people? It might be their first Apple Watch, because this is the cheaper 279 dollars, um version, as opposed to the 400 series.

Six right, and it is, it just tells me how far apple has come in the smartwatch making game. This thing you don't have there's so much fewer delays. There are so few pauses and stutters uh everything that I expect to work works more or less the way it should, and you know, even though it's kind of tiny. This thing just feels really dense. It feels so well-made.

I don't know, I don't want to like go on and on because I mean you're talking about all the things people have been saying about the Apple Watch. I think it's the very first one, although it's gotten more stable, like I bought the first one, it felt good like as a device. It felt good. The software was just slow. You know apple's always made like good, like feeling the things would feel well put together: yeah um, the mean software has had this issue.

Certain features were missing, etc. , um but yeah. No. I mean I still prefer Tyson's bezel interface, where you can like to flick it around and go, and you know swipe through a lot of pages at once. This is the first time anybody has said.

I still prefer ties in anything. I still. No, no, I will say Samsung's, spinning bezel. Everyone has been saying that it's still the best way. No, it's still the best way to interact with the watch.

I don't I don't mind the crown. In fact, I like the way the crown like the little dial on the Apple Watch, feels like an actual watch style, whereas the bezel thing on Samsung, based on what I saw like a couple of years ago with some, I think the second gen Samsung watches like it was fine, but those things are so thick. Like that's the thing, even when you start off the Samsung watch with us, it's too thick on your wrist. It looks bad, whereas you look at the Apple Watch. It's a lot lower profile.

Furthermore, it seems more fitting to being a smart device in 2020 right. So the watch three yes they've made the bezels, slimmer and smaller and lighter um, and it still was a chunky watch, chunky, baby um and yes, I agree that the digital crown is lower profile. It is not as easy to use because it doesn't offer you as much as room to kind of like work with, but it's again up to you if you're an android person, the Apple Watch still isn't going to be good for you. So you're still going to go with like something like the galaxy watch uh. The watch active too, however, does have sort of that spinning bezel interface, with the touch bezel rather than a physical, spinning, wheel, um, and I don't like that as much, but it's there also, if you need it anyway, just like to quickly break down what are some of the things that are coming out of this experience with uh Apple Watch, SE with watch OS, seven, which you know launches with this watch and the series six you get sleep tracking, right and listeners of this podcast know about my love, hate relationship with that, and I also recently reviewed the Fitbit sense, which does a different like a more in-depth sort of sleep tracking.

So the watch I was seven one night I put it on. I went to bed. I was like all right: grumbling, grumbling. Furthermore, I don't want to watch the bed if I did it next morning, I woke up. Furthermore, I was like okay after this night of terrible sleep, let's take a look at like what the watch OS is uh.

What the watch is going to tell me didn't track anything. It didn't track anything. Why? Because I was a dummy plus there was a step in the setup process that was like enable sleep tracking, oh, but you have to, and I was oh, but that's good, that's good for privacy in that it is it's asking you to do that, but yeah you have to do that extra step. Sorry, I agree. No, no! No, I mean yeah.

We were saying like in our production call. You were like. No totally apple should be able to like it says automatic sleep tracking. It should be automatic um. I think once well, once you confirm it.

I didn't know where you were in the setup process, but I feel like once you're being like. Okay, you could do all this stuff apple, just let right, and then I was like. I see the total. Like the point of the know, people's whole thing is being cautious about your privacy about your permissions, so they want you to actively be like be aware, we're going to track your sleep, so this step. I get the whole theory behind it.

It was just a moment of like in the review process. This was frustrating anyway, I enabled it, and then it's tracked my sleep. It's not as accurate. I feel as the um others that I've tested fitness sense and a galaxy watch are a little better at it, because they actually use your heart rate and calculate your sleep zones, whereas this thing, first, you set up like a wind down your time to go to bed feature. I kind of like that.

Furthermore, I do like that. Furthermore, I've been using on my phone and just like it makes the like little lullaby sounds like oh, it is 1.15 am, and I've been writing all night. Maybe I should leave this computer. You know it's great on your phone. It's not good on your watch because it doesn't do anything on my watch other than like DND like blocks all notifications, I'm like great.

I don't want to be woken up later on, so I set my bedtime to 1am, which is, I know, it's late for most people, but it's really for me and what it does is it just starts counting as if you were sleeping, am yeah, and I'm just like no it's not about when yeah right. So then it notices that, like it will notice breaks in the time, and it will, you know log those, but ultimately it told me I slept a lot longer than I actually did, which was I going to bed at like 2, 30 or something I don't know, but yeah um, I'm still not fully convinced that apple sleep tracking is better than the rest. Yet, obviously, I think others do better on that, and this is something they can improve on for the next. I think this is Fitbit. Fitbit was the one who started that with the trackers like back without competing with jawbone and yeah, with the aria like back when fitness trackers were big on this Fitbit has been doing it forever, so they have the most uh the most.

I believe they also bought some companies too, for better sleep tracking is entirely impossible yeah. I think that the sleep tracker is a better device to wear to bed than a watch, but oh yeah right. Let me go on about that. Talking about Fitbit, I just finished reviewing the Fitbit sense. That thing I mean gosh.

I love the sleeve inside to get from that honestly, I don't like wearing anything to bed, but on my watch on my wrist but um the FBO sense when you do get the results they're so like I spent some time looking at. Oh, I was in rem sleep for that long. Oh, it was a restorative stuff that long that was so great to see and yeah. Samsung also does this, which is nice anyway. I almost feel like there should be a mode for these watches where you just slip it into your pillow, maybe or something like a charging thing that sits under you or near you, while you're sleeping, so it can actually try right since I can actually remove the strap and just use the case.

That would be. That would be a really smart piece of software if they ever came up with it, but it can't um either. Does the Apple Watch do oxygen tracking? No, the series 6 has the blood oxygen and the ECG so between the SE and the series 6, your main difference is the lack of ECG. You don't have a blood oxygen sensor. Also, you don't have that you have a different processor, but this is the one that's on this is speedy as hello last year's processor.

Right now, that's good. I do wonder what blood oxygen, how that what that could add to sleep tracking, because I am somebody who constantly worries like do. I have sleep apnea I don't mean no. Furthermore, I've never gone through a test, but that's all about oxygen monitoring and everything, and I snore a lot sometimes so. That makes me worried and your only solution to that is to get the uh to get the mask or whatever you call that uh, the guard, the snore guard or something, but also no, it is the um the sleep apnea mask that has called CPAP it kind of pumps for you.

I do feel like we are waiting for a company to do like a smart, CPAP thing, because a lot of people sleep terribly a lot of people snore and just making people sleep better, would be like a monumental thing. I think Phillips or some other companies have come up with them, but they're like 500 bucks plus you know so what uh Fitbit does is. It has uh, I think what looks like an experimental snore detection um, which I turned on, and I don't snore so like. Obviously it didn't detect anything but um, oh yeah. No.

I know this for a fact and uh the Fitbit's issue, though my issue with Fitbit- and you can see this in the review that went up on gadget. com- is that, like the way uh, you know it detects or tracks, your blood oxygen is only at night, which the company told me. The reason they do this is that, like your blood oxygen levels, don't change a lot during the day right. Finally, if you're tracking at night, what you're doing is you're getting a baseline read, and then you compare your variations and that's how you detect things like sleep, apnea or other respiration issues um. So I think that it's fine, you might want to consider the sense if you're, really that concerned um, I don't know apple and Samsung, with their blood oxygen they're, detecting more throughout the day.

It takes apple just 15 seconds. It takes Samsung more or less around the same time to get a reading which you're just going to get a result. That tells you like you're good, more or less, so I don't know yeah. I think another good thing about Fitbit 2. Is its good for being cross-platform, where, if you are somebody who doesn't know if you're going to stick with iOS or stick with android uh, I know the Samsung stuff works with iOS 2 Sherwin.

You mentioned that, but I have a feeling that it still works best with android and all the android widgets right. Every yeah we've discussed this before every smartwatch. That's not an Apple Watch works better with android, because it's more open it allows you to stick your replies and stuff like that, whereas iOS doesn't but uh. Obviously, Fitbit can also work with an OS or iPhone if you want to, and you can still get those insights um, I wanted to say a really quick thing about the Fitbit, which is it yeah. It's just comparing the Fitbit moving from the Fitbit to the Apple Watch, I think, is part of the reason why I was so amazed at the Apple Watch, because Fitbit OS is limited.

It's very it's its raw, it's kind of unrefined. Furthermore, it's kind of it's a shame in 2020 Fitbit software is still so right. They bought pebble just for the software yeah yeah, and they did very little with it, except for open up, like HTML developer platform, for like easier app writing, which is great but anyway um. One last thing that I really liked about the Apple Watch, though, is um. You know people keep talking about closing your ring.

Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, that's like! Oh! No, it's another game. We found another game. We're shooting to be obsessed with. It is the ring game. So tell me: did you just walk around in circles for a full day? I didn't walk around circle in circles for quite a lot of the day.

Uh literally see how this plays out like fully predictable. I just walk up. I go grab like a glass of water and I start pouring it by like a walk around as I pour it. Furthermore, I'm just like. Let's do this um, no, but what's been even more fun is uh at the start of my review process, Chris Velasco, our senior mobile editor and also Apple Watch user was like uh.

Chris Velasco has uh invited you to share your activity, oh god, the second that happened. He and I are both like so competitive now with each other, like he'll, go for a bike ride at the end of the day, just to like match, I added Valentina, Palladio and other. Like Apple Watch, users on the Engadget team and yeah, we have like a. I have a mini competition going on with everyone, so Valentina always kicks butt. She's always like waiting for her to, so I also get alerts when all these people finish their workouts now, because we're sharing info I wake up every morning to Valentina already having completed like two runs or something like yeah, just like no, I just woke up um yeah, so it's that's really fun, and it's not that Fitbit doesn't offer competition in its service.

There is a Fitbit community that allows for that. It's just not as baked in this seamless, yeah yeah it just. I ran you're starting to see the apple spell Sharlene like it's the baked in it's it's yeah, oh yeah. No, it works it's a lot of. That is the reason people stick with apple.

What it is I knew in theory before and then having it now and also being a person who has reviewed a lot of other smartwatches. It's more that like because I've seen what's not so great, coming up with something that's really well done feels different. You know, what's funny, is that you being an android expert, has made you in a way, appreciate, iOS and really like I'm bored, I did write. I did already write an article like in June that watch west 7 might be what gets me to move over to iOS. I will say dear listener.

Viewer, don't worry, I am not a trader. I am still going to stick to android, but this thing really tells me a lot, but now your life is filled with regret, you're, just like man. I wish I'm just going to have two phones and two watches, because the iPhone can be my work. Phone you'll have the good phone and the bad phone. That's so mean that's not true.

The good watch and the bad watch, maybe so talking about bad phones. I don't know or others be mean again. Tell me about tell me about the Samsung Galaxy impact for every fan event in which they announced another goddamn phone. So Samsung yeah announced the unpacked event for every fan. It was Tues Wednesday or Tuesday at like whatever time again time is on, wouldn't the fans already own.

The phones like. Why are you hosting an event right a year after uh? That's the question that everyone has been asking since they talked about the s20 Fe, which is the fans want the higher end phone? Well, the s20 Fe stands for fan edition, and it comes it's 6.99 is, so it's like 700, which is 200 cheaper than the s20 is, and it's got like 6.5-inch screen but 1080p instead of quad HD, you get like the same processor, but the camera, the camera. That's the telephoto lens is a little less sharp. It's eight megapixels. Actually, if I uh I'm not 100 sure on the actual, I just I want to my head like an owl and just like feel like what none of this makes it so very too strange yeah, it's a strange mix and hodgepodge of specs.

It's just that keeper s20 right, but don't they already have a cheaper s20? No, they have the s20 plus and s20 ultra, oh, okay. Okay! So now you got the cheap, Fe s20 and let's, let's talk about why the hell they named this Fe cause. We were saying it's clearly not so called for the fans like they're, trying to tell you uh. We had a briefing with Samsung and someone asked Samsung hey. Why are you calling it the Fe yeah they're like well, because we did market research and the word light doesn't do so well and the word e doesn't do great, and so we're going to go with f e, because Fe tracks well with people we're like yeah.

It attracts 12 people because they think you're going to stuff it with special bonus, yeah like or like BTS or special edition phone with the new processor, something that the people who bought early didn't get right, and I think it's also kind of a take on apple's SE right we've got the Apple Watch. Se we've got the um, you know iPhone. Se. Are you saying Samsung may be copying apple in some respects? That's that's unfounded. I mean that's, that's uh! That's totally! Nothing! No one in the industry has ever done before.

Yeah, I mean s. E f e even sounds a little like s e become a thing. So, lets uh, I think that that's what they were going for. So, let's see if they continue this naming because Samsung has tried a lot of different names for his budget phones now, and it's none of them have really stuck. The other thing, too, is with this phone.

We've got the total number of phones launched this year by Samsung, just in the flagship lines it's up to eight okay, so like yeah, I'm going to run this down galaxy s20, s20, plus s20, ultra z. Flip. Then we had the no 20, no 20 ultra the Galaxy Z, fault, 2, and now the s20 Fe you're, not even carrying like the line which is the to yeah, not even the line, and then I tweeted this out and I got like all kinds of like all around the world, not even the m51, the n9. I was like guys. I know, there's a lot of phones.

There are other markets yeah, but like holy crap Sam song- and I mean I agree- they used to do like carrier versions of specific phones. So it's already like a drop in the number and there are 5g variants this year too, for some phones there are, I think, the z flip comes in the z, flip, 5g um, but anyhow Samsung you all, you, you got a lot of assembly lines going on right there. So what? What is the price of this phone because I feel like any 6.99? This is their. How does this compare to the uh? You know uh Pixel 4a, which is 350 bucks and is our perfect, lovely, cheap boy, so uh the biggest difference, I think you'll see is the processor is actually different. There is 865 on the s20 Fe, and you know google uses more like a 700 level, but google really.

You can't really tell the difference. The software runs really well on the 4a another huge difference: camera um you get additional sensors with the s20 Fe, which offers you a bit more flexibility of versatility in your shooting um. But again, Google has done such a great job with the one sensor that I know much as I would like a wide angle lens for landscapes. I not, I don't feel like I'm missing out, I kind of trust google's software more than Samsung's multiple sensors, especially like I think I was watching. Reviews at the latest note right and the camera stuff seems weird.

It just seems like Samsung is doing weird processing to a lot of things in a not great way. Uh well depends stand strong. Your selfies are always going to look a little artificially tweaked, just a bit um and the rest of it, though I mean there's like some sort of artifacts in processing. Samsung has tamped that down a lot, but I kind of see it as like. One of the things is the way they render color, and I see the approach of Samsung versus google and versus the iPhone cameras on color and similar to that philosophy of canon versus uh, Nikon or right.

Something like that, like bolder versus more muted. Exactly, exactly so, it's really up to your own preference. Sometimes I think Samsung users are either already used to it or they have found their own workarounds, or they like it um and everyone else that prefers like natural, more neutral, colors they're going to prefer something. Like I mean we don't even talk about the Huawei phones. The Huawei phones are over saturated a lot of the time.

For sure, I mean yeah. It is sort of like it is like looking at TV screens too, like if you watch at the TV screen and Best Buy or something it's too bright, the colors cranked up way too much like that's. How people try to sell you on screen so yeah I get it uh children are there going to be any other Samsung events this year, because I am, I'm done with Samsung. I don't want to talk about Samsung anymore. I uh.

So we usually see Samsung do a development conference in November everyone's all like where's, the galaxy homeboy. Where is that galaxy? You know uh-huh, so we don't know whether they'll have another where the ti zen bands at where the or the Bixby where's, the Bixby speaker, maybe there'll, be a Bixby fridge. Does not exist, I don't think probably doesn't yeah. Actually, I think uh you. I don't know if you've seen pop star, never stop, never stopping yet trillion, which is a masterpiece of comedy and one of the greatest American movies ever made of the past 10 years, at least, but there's a point where they make a joke about a smart fridge and how smart fridges go haywire when you send songs over a bad firmware update.

I see the Bixby fridge. That is the Bixby fridge. That is the fridge with the speaker in it, for some reason that you talk to and Samsung sends an update, and it just plays music every time you open it way too loud. That is Samsung. You can do that.

You heard it here. First, I predicted. Okay, let's spend a second talking to chat just because we've barreled through a bunch of things. Let me take a note: 46 20. Uh.

He means special edition. Yes, not standard edition um. The funniest thing that I saw during the Apple Watch segment is someone saying uh that Shirley said: oh, the watch is pretty, and apple corp is like. We got her yeah, it's more like uh was it Janine and ghostbusters we got one. There are people pointing out that, like the bezel they like the bezel like their look, there are people who, like it, I love it.

Uh the Samsung, bezel sure yeah. You can have one thing. You can have one thing that is nice on the Samsung watch. It's that bezel, that round rotating bezel yeah uh. I think we hopefully answered Stuart Wiley's question about the sleep tracking after I set it up.

Yeah, and a lot of it is talking about how you know. Well-Made and hefty uh apple products can be um like hefty as in just no no well I mean just hefty is like it feels like it's well-made yeah just strongly. I almost had like a moment from like I don't know if you guys remember one of the climactic moments of the abyss where somebody is very strong wedding ring engagement ring, I forget, uh prevents like a giant door from slamming, but on multiple occasions my Apple Watch has prevented a door from just like slamming on my wrist, because it's just like it stops right there and the glass is undamaged. Reaction was not concerned for your wrist. I was concerned for the watch.

The watch is fine. Okay, all right. As long as you didn't crack the watch, I don't care about your wrists yeah. So speaking of like healthcare stuff, it's interesting that you were talking about um a smart CPAP, because my dad has actually used a CPAP since I was in high school and so that's like his primary connection to any kind of like health cracking sort of thing yeah. He was telling me about how he got a new CPAP recently that I don't know if it reports like sleep quality or anything on the level of Fitbit or apple watches sleep tracking easily, because it has all your movement like they can sense your movement.

It reports, you should usage statistics to um your insurer, interesting because, like some people get prescribed to CPAP, but don't end up using it right so like that, may be applied to their um insurance payments or something like that versus. If you use it every single night for three years, there are some um programs in some insurance policies where, if you use it every single night, then they're like okay. Yes, you really need it you're being good about using it, and so now you just outright own it. Oh, that's interesting. I feel like let's earmark this for a potential topic for a future episode, but data tracking and insurance companies there's a lot going on there.

Oh yeah, absolutely yeah. I also did the car thing like the was signed up for car insurance for the first time in 10 years. You know, and they do the thing where they track they. They can give you a sensor to track how much mileage you've done. Yeah, yeah yeah.

All of that now and I'm like I don't I don't want to know. I don't want Allstate to know when I break too hard. You know count that against me, even though I'm getting a discount for it, so yeah, that's interesting, then well and the discount, as all the more paranoid people would say, is for a closer look into your life. It's really a like surveillance, discount, it's surveillance, and it's in for your insurance company. So inevitably they could use that against you.

If anything happens right. So I have one silly question before we go on um, and it's uh like since we've been talking about Apple Watch, stuff, I've been thinking about how on Twitter, and you see like screenshots of tweets pop up on Instagram and stuff. There have been many variations of the same thing, which is, if you're going to a fancy event, take your Apple Watch off because it makes you look like a spy kid. So I make me wonder when smartwatches are going to become either the design of smartwatches is going to get in the direction of not looking so much like just a screen on your wrist or when smartwatches are going to get to a point where it's just normal to be wearing them normal to see them as you're. You know out at a wedding or at a know some kind of award reception or something like that.

I mean there's been a lot of effort on the side of fashion brands like fossil, like Marc Jacobs, like even LV tag Homer, they make smartwatches that, like are supposed to blend in and look pretty hybrid ones right, yeah, not even the hybrids, that's actual Wear OS ones, um and then there are hybrid smartwatches that do that as well. That are very much in disguise, but are also carrying step. Trackers and sometimes heart rate sensors, like the withing, watches um. So there's those, but I think, you're talking about something else, which is the smartwatch becoming mainstream like a household product, and that is a ways to go. That is what I think the watch s e and that's something I already wrote down in my review that what just e might foster it might bring about so, but we're not there.

Yet I don't think we are, and I don't think you know. I think eventually, though- and this is something I'm about to pitch as a story to write but um- no, don't say it because you won't get scooped, it's okay, it's okay, I'll, say it here and then everyone will know I got. I had the idea first um with the rise of telehealth and all of these watches collecting so much different types of data. The Fitbit sense by the way collects all sorts of data um, together with all of that, it will start becoming more essential to your overall well-being that you have all these like convenience devices at home, like your ECG, whatever you don't have to go to the doctor's office. To do that anymore.

Yeah, that's one of the reasons. People will start buying more of these things and then eventually, hopefully, maybe not hopefully, but eventually, it'll, probably like take off. That sounds like a good reason to bring um. We should chat with chrissy Fargo because she has been exploring all this for a while, so that would be fun and then there's whether or not like the traditional watch would just go in the way of the cuff links. You know when do you when else, do you wear cuff links right or maybe one or two fancy events a year? And so maybe you take off your Apple Watch.

You take off your Fitbit, you take off whatever other smart device. You would have for just that. One night right and put on your traditional watch, like you put on your cuff links, I think they're going to go the way I mean like we're talking about a very different type set of the public population. Here are the people who have ten thousand dollar luxury smartwatches to go to a gala, so those people are going to keep doing their thing and the rest of the world is, I think, most analog timepieces are going to go the way of the hybrid they're all going to try to figure out a way to put at least a step counter in there, so that they're watching us more than just tell time and nobody wants to wear anything. That's the thing! That's the hump! You have to get over its just your phone doesn't watch the extra yeah yeah um.

So there's also that yeah people don't even wanna, wear, watches any more because of phones, so they have to find a way. But I mean I think, that's where we're headed. I did wanna point out that, while we were talking during the podcast recording, I got a reminder from the Apple Watch to breathe. So thank you very much. That's a good one! Clench your jaw signed apple and then also as if you got one of those very popular tattoos on like the inside of your wrist just breathe.

Have you used the breath after Lynn, because the meditation stuff is a lot better again than does it like the way it tells you to start breathing it is vibrates in the pattern of like a balloon, expanding yeah and then it and decrease, and like going back to normal, whereas like Fitbit, would just buzz once and be like hey breathe? However, you want to breathe, do whatever yeah. I will know to like try to hit that pattern as well with that balloon, I'm imagining it and the haptic the haptics in the Apple Watch by the way does a good job. So good, oh my god. The hackers are amazing, huge, huge gentle touches and stuff yeah. We've got a comment from the chat that says the usability of smartwatches doesn't quite feel convenient enough to me to be a daily driver.

I got my wife one of those Michael tors, smartwatches, and she's cute, but she doesn't wear it yeah. I have exactly what Davina has said about some of the stuff that he gets for his wife right yeah, I mean well, so my wife is more of a techie and she, like I got her- was it the galaxy was one of the wristband galaxy from a couple of years ago. The fit two, probably I think the fit two, and she liked it for a while. She uses it for like a year, but also after a year, those devices either get too slow or we want something else where we want some new features and so like she's not the same, but I will keep you know I'll keep doing this. If my quest to bring my wife over to iOS succeeds, I can get her an Apple Watch happier.

I wanted to answer one question that I saw from Matthew cotton about. Is it so well-made the apple watches e that it is worth nearly 300 uh? I see your point, but I will tell you every other. Smartwatch at this price point doesn't do all the same things. You don't get the same quality screen and everything yeah. This watch for the price uh beats all the competition.

I want that's my early review thoughts like of all the other smartwatches in the, whereas space other than the mob voice and the amaze fits which are dubious in terms of quality, sometimes um they're like 300 dollars to start or 350 dollars so, and then you get like Wear OS which doesn't do as many things. So man don't yeah. We need to dedicate a whole episode to how where west has disappointed us, because it had the potential to be so cool and so interesting. The mother 360 remember when everybody was so hyped over that thing. Oh man, we joined the general, the first gen, the first gen first I mean first time when I first appeared to was like apple watching great, but look at this cool round thing from Motorola, oh hype for where OS, when it first we're all hyped and our hearts have been broken so many times by android.

So if I poke fun at android, it's because of that, it's because I've spent so long wanting android to succeed and at every front google's like I. I don't know how to make watch software anymore, so let's just give up folks, you know, oh my gosh. Well, there was one other thing from like that is unrelated. Uh. Stewart in the chat says that I use cashback websites would be interested to hear thoughts on the trade-off um uh for like what you buy in terms of data versus the cash back that you get so are there any? Do you guys have any thoughts on that? I didn't use any of those, but I think my wife loves to shop around and find deals, so I think she do I'm not going to use.

I use the honey uh brown invention, which is it just finding you coupon codes. Furthermore, I don't yeah cashback. Furthermore, I do like credit card or something does some sort of cashback, and I am worried about the data from honey too, like that one. Furthermore, I know a lot of podcasts uh, sponsor them and stuff too, where, if it's something running on your system, I'm always worried. Whereas it's not that hard to google, you know coupon, for you know forever 21 or banana republic or something and go to derailment and just find it manually like that's all.

It does yeah exactly um. I don't know we need to move on. If we do, I just want to like shout out thanks to everyone, that's been in there interacting like d man, Bahama Austin millers, all the other people. George! Thank you folks. Yes, so are we going to do the Amazon event as just real, quick, just real, quick and then, then straight to working on yeah, okay, okay, so it's worth mentioning as you're hearing this um you're, probably gonna.

You know see a lot of news about new Amazon devices. We're recording this on Thursday morning, literally hours before the Amazon event starts. So, unfortunately, we cannot talk about the new Amazon stuff yeah, which is a shame and hey, I'm just going to throw some ideas out there, um, probably new echoes, probably these smart features, probably some smart devices that nobody will give a crap about. That sampling is crazy enough to make so the smart can opener yeah. Let's, let's throw some ideas out there yeah? What are you thinking? Uh, smart, smart curtains have been done, that's good! What is it? Yeah yeah, a smart, smart, uh drying rack, because Amazon basics is closed.

Drying. Rack is pretty, pretty freaking good, so you can get some smart air on your wet clothes, smart or like uh, moisture detection and then tell I can't say the word Alexei, but tell Alexei that uh you you you want, she can tell you when you are close or dry, I mean that that's one thing I sent a note to Scott stein over at CNET because he was wondering what sort of crazy things were popping up to you uh. I propose the echo, which is a smart bidet that tracks your excrement uh. Therefore, tracking your nutrition levels and everything you've eaten and also automatically starts building a shopping list for you, based on what you've already eaten amazing I feel like that is the full circle going straight to whole foods. It's a full circle, Amazon ecosystem right there, echo bidets, are hot now in the pandemic era.

Just wait. Just wait. Yeah! No! Speaking of that whole ecosystem thing with Amazon, having announced the halo wearable with like health tracking and like tone, detecting weirdly yeah they're, a new like controversial product being the echo weighing scale this year, I mean this is too high time to not buy so much candy from whole foods or something because those have existed for years. So I'm sure, actually, I'm adding, I think, you're right. They could easily add that yeah.

It would be a very obvious thing for them to make, but if the rest of you watching or listening have any ideas as to what might come out of the Amazon event feel free to send them. I think there were. There were some. The fire TV stick light a cheaper version of the fire TV. That is one thing: that's a smart project uh product to launch just because Roku has a bunch of uh.

Cheap sticks now like cheap streaming sticks are all over the place. They make great gifts, they're easy to install, so that makes sense yeah, and we saw that google is announcing a new Chromecast at its event next week too. So this is going to go up against that for sure that is next week's news we're going to be all in on Google and that's going to be fun. I do like the one thing google does pretty well is the whole Chromecast platform, even though they kill Chromecast audio, and I'm still that still hurts um, but yeah Chromecast. Hopefully they can keep building on that anything else.

You want to mention amazon train. I don't know by the time this episode is up and people are listening to it on whatever podcast platform you already know, but just keep sending those wild ideas to us. Maybe one of them will be picked up by Amazon, and you can claim bragging rights to being had you thought of it? First, I think one fun thing is: let's collect some ideas. We could go start talking to smart gadget companies and see who wants to build some of these things. My echo Lou will be real one day.

Actually, I have a Toto bidet on my uh on one of my bathrooms yeah. That is that thing. I wrote about that for a gadget. One of my favorite one of my favorite gadget purchases of the past few years, is a freaking bidet, because in the middle of winter you want something warm on your butt. That is it.

This might yeah. That's all you want. I can't that's all you want uh, let's move in to what we've been working on and uh. You know things I'm doing when I'm not sitting on my toe bidet is uh testing the racer blade 2020 uh, which is uh their latest blade with the RTX 2080 chips and a 300 hertz screen. So I'm going to be working on a review for that soon.

It is super cool. I'm testing, one of the first intel Eve laptops. I believe, there's. Never I can't yeah. I don't need to keep it secret.

It is the ASUS zombie flip s, which is super cool, so I'm gonna, that's gonna, be a fuller review. I'm going to be out next week, but I'll have a review for that in at some point. I'm really digging this, and also last week I tested out that intel tiger lake uh prototype machine. These things feel so fast, and this machine in particular feels so super thin, while also moving really quickly. It is its a computer where almost the instant, I flip up the screen it just pops on into the login screen or into like windows, hello, to get me to the desktop.

How fast that compares to existing, like not to say windows on snapdragon, but a lot of the Ultrabooks I've used lately are pretty fast already, so it'd be nice to see how it's like the new big thing, um, so yeah testing those two things um, certainly I mean what else is new? There's going to be a lot of stuff coming. I am prepping, I'm preparing for the onslaught of console reviews which are certainly going to hit us uh towards the middle and end of October. Uh, that's gonna, be a big thing. Look out for our content around all of that um Sherwin. What's up with you, uh yeah, in addition to reviewing the Apple Watch, SE, now that the Fitbit sense review has gone up, I am working on a lot of embargoed stuff as per usual that I can say, I'm the secret keeper.

I have only a lot of secrets, but everyone knows that google's event is next week on Wednesday, so I am obviously also preparing for that. It's like studying for an exam. This is our job. I have to like. Do all the research and revision and write a lot of stuff uh, I'm very sure we will have all the coverage for you.

We will be watching that event live most probably so stay tuned for a link from us, or you know, subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified. When we go live, so you can watch it with us. Uh it'll be fun Davina. You said you won't be around next week right. I won't.

I forgot this. Google event was happening, but yeah um, I will not be around, but hopefully you guys will be fine enjoy the android stuff. I know we will be. We will hopefully be okay and hopefully have plenty of help from the rest of our co-workers, so you can take some well-deserved time off. I'm just going to be playing a lot of games, but uh.

Okay, do you have any pics? You want to talk about train. What's up this week, yeah so I mean we all heard the really sad news over. I think the weekend that Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed- and I you know- saw that over the weekend too, a lot of people were playing the RBG documentary yeah by the way smart move Hulu like whose streaming, the RPG dock uh straight up right to the front page like immediately that night, and it makes sense because a lot of people want to find this thing. Yeah, um. I think it's no secret that the um RBG document documentary is a great documentary.

Um, sorry guys. I need to pause for a little, I'm getting some kind of double audio going on hello, strange, I'm it. I think there is a rogue tab on my thing that might be playing our YouTube live features: okay, yeah yeah, yeah uh, but I can't find it is something going on with the uh. It looks fine on my end, so you're not hearing this. Only me yeah, okay, just kill all your other browsers.

I need to kill everything. I think it's yeah. It was twitter. Okay, it was the tweet that we um had you uh. Oh, it was pouring in the tweet yeah wow, okay, very loud, okay anyway, I'm back I'm ready to pick it up from right now.

Why don't you take a step back just to um reset everything yeah? It's like. If you saw me looking off a bit there tell us how you went to a small school on the upper west side, all of that stuff, okay, um! So I know that everyone is aware of the RBG documentary. I mean a lot of networks were streaming, it for free Hulu did like defend, said: uh put it front and center for the weekend as well. So you know it's a good documentary. You've probably already seen it, but I wanted to point out my personal like connection to this documentary.

One of the directors uh Betsy west was my rw1 professor at school at j school uh and Julie Cohen, her co-director. It was also one of our professors at the school. So you know it's nice to see my uh the person who taught me everything. I know about video production aka. None of the skills I use today, um yeah, you know, have her work, be celebrated and also have worked with such an amazing inspiration like she spent so much time with RBG collecting.

All of that, you know information about her life and her legacy so just check it out. If you haven't already I'm so glad this movie was made by the way like it's, it seems like it's been something people were trying to do for a while, and I'm glad this yeah was able to happen uh shortly before her death. Yeah, I'm glad yeah. We were able to do that in like such a timely fashion too, and it was wild to see like my professors, on the red, carpets and winning Emmys and stuff, even though they've already won a lot of awards, it's just sure all right, you all are now like even a more big deal than you were when you were yeah. This movie was a box office hit too, so it put them in a place to make a lot more documentaries.

You know. So that's a lot of clout within the movie industry yeah. I want to also recommend something: a little less uh heavy uh or a little less inspiration, and- and I don't want to sound rude to follow up RPG with this, but the ventral you'll be happy to know that I have I watched uh recently, the fast times live table read that was on YouTube. Have you heard of that? I've heard I mean there have been a lot of table reads. I have not seen this one but yeah this one.

Furthermore, I like fast time. It's fine huge names like yeah, big names, and everyone went wild for the uh. For the Jen Anniston and Brad Pitt reunion moment on there that was kind of slightly awkward, because I'm sure you remember the iconic scene, because I've never watched fast times at Richmond high. This was my first ever encounter with the wait, so you haven't even seen the movie. I know I was livestreaming.

I never watched the movie, but okay, the table read, and it was awkward as hell, but also great Shia LeBoeuf, I'm not entirely trying to pronounce his name. He did not work his butt off, since he was a child for you to call him Shia, LeBoeuf. Well, there's a lot of people whose names get mispronounced all the time. Andrei park on the Emmys also had his name mispronounced, despite winning a very important award. So let's put that out there uh, I'm sorry, Shia LeBoeuf uh was also really great in character as piccolo.

This was my introduction to all these characters. You guys have known for a long time, and this was you're taking the route that I'm sure a lot of like uh, gen z, folks, uh are doing who have probably not seen this movie, but who knows because listen the youngs have latched on to the office as their new nostalgic look, which is yeah and friends. So who knows? Maybe this is for me. This was my nostalgic. Look at like the 80s, when I was.

You know a 90s kid, so yeah, okay, oh so now that you've said gen, z, kids are picking it up. Can I classify myself as gen z, like you're you're, in a generation of your own trilogy? What do you recommend people watch um? So I have been previewing a show. That's going to be premiering on Amazon this Friday, and that is the remake of the British series utopia, and it is freaking astounding, like it's very good. I tried to watch the original show and I know a lot of people who loved it um. So I know the caveat of the show is that basically, it seems like a straight up.

Almost direct remake of everything happening um, you know in the original series, but just I love how well done it is um. So, first, this is a utopia remake um by Gillian Flynn, it's written by Gillian Flynn. So, like you know the the person who brought um gone girl to like, like the author of gone girl, um, it is a show about a group of comic nerds who are obsessed with a comic called utopia, because they think it can help them predict uh how the world is going to end, and it is a show it's a hard show to watch out because it's all about pandemics, it's all about like the things and the impending apocalypse that we're facing um. But I like the characters. I think the writing is super strong um.

You know it has a great cast yeah, it looks. It looks great, has a great cast, including john cu sack, as like a super rich pharma bro who may or may not be in charge of this rain. Wilson is in it as a like biotechnology, guy um and just something. For me, one of the lead roles is played by Sasha lane. I believe her name is, and she was you know, she's a tremendous actor who first appeared on American honey uh like an independent movie, I loved from a couple of years ago, so just great cast all around great like end of the world stuff um.

If you like good thrillers, if you like apocalyptic thrillers, and it's its really deeply embedded in like fan culture and stuff too, if you've ever loved, you know something so much if you've been a fanboy or fan girl or something- and you feel like your devotion to it, could help you unlock the secrets of the world, which I've certainly felt with some shows um, namely neon genesis, evangelist uh, but yeah things like that. If you were, if you've ever had that band culture, I think you'll really appreciate utopia so check it out on Amazon uh starting Friday. I actually can't wait to watch this. It looks like this sort of sci-fi TV show. I've been looking for instead of watching ghost hunters, which I just started, stop watching ghost numbers uh.

Instead, for once, I will pick one of your recommended all right, you want to do the outs I'll, do the outro Ben. Are you ready yep? That's it for our show this week. Everyone. Thank you. As always for listening.

Our theme. Music is by game. Composer dale north our outro music, is by our very own Terence o'brain. The podcast is produced by Ben Elma. You can find Davina online at Mahendra on Twitter.

I podcast about movies in TV at slashfilm. com, at the slash home cast. If you want to hear me talk about the legend of Korea, which is incredible. I'm at republic city dispatch uh, just google that, and you'll find our show, and if you can hold off on sending me all the different types of phones Samsung has made in your country. That would be great.

You can find me on Twitter at Sherwin. Lowe feel free to send me uh tips on where to find the best Malaysian food in the US as well. Oh, and email us at podcastinggadget. com leave us a review on iTunes and subscribe. Please on anything that gets podcasts, including Spotify.

I like how food took the priority, for you know like food, is very, very in character. Yeah, I'm done yesterday. So I used. I was testing the GPS on the watch, and I was like all right. Apple Maps.

Take me to the nearest restaurant and they very astutely, led me to a bakery. So I was like okay, and it was like the nearest Asian. Your blood sugar seems slow. You need yeah. That would be kind of um like the next step, though yeah.

If you like, trigger monitoring work, your um yeah, if you could network like let's say you had type 2 or something you could network or type one, it doesn't really matter, but you could network your insulin pump with your um. You know Samsung gear. If you could uh, is that correct, Samsung gear galaxy, you watched, galaxy watch galaxy gear, but that died okay. So yes, if you could network it with your galaxy watch, if you could network it with your um with your Apple Watch or something, and then you didn't have to check two screens, yeah be cool that'd, be good. I mean that that is the ultimate that's where we want all this medical tech to go.

So that's what I'm super excited about and hey, maybe even if it can help type one diabetes. Folks, uh really take care of themselves like it can help prevent this. The prevention it from getting worse, like that's the big problem for a lot of people, but yeah, do we want to do q a yeah? So if you have anything to ask questions about in the chat doesn't matter if it has anything to do with what we talked about today, whatever yeah, if you're thinking about buying a TV, if you want to know what might have the edge in the console wars, we've been talking about it for a long time last few weeks, but we're happy to talk about it more. One thing that uh I wanted to comment on from a little while ago was: yes, you were joking about the Amazon Lou, the Amazon bidet that will like automatically order. The food that you've eaten is that there was a study that came out of Yale.

Yale is doing a lot of good coronavirus research that showed that you can actually predict a coronavirus spike by monitoring the level of inactive virus in the local sewage treatment plant. I love it. Sensors everywhere, yeah sure, and I mean, but that sort of thing is not. I don't think that's as much of an uh breach of privacy. Maybe it's because we're in a different scenario right now, and we have to worry about okay, this could uh, you know, help protect people right.

It is widespread statistical monitoring which is not does not directly impact your individual right, which is another difference. Yeah. If I remember the um specifics of the paper right, it gave maybe like an eight or like seven to ten day lead on whether there would be an uh spike in coronavirus cases, which means that you could ostensibly give um hospitals an uh heads up and say: okay, you might want to get extra supplies. You might want to make sure that you're stocked up on PPE and the coolest thing about this is that it went from uh paper in the early summer. To I was, I just heard something about it on the news within the last few days of like they're, actually talking about putting this into practice.

That's amazing, uh! Sorry! I was slightly checked out during that discussion because I was looking at the YouTube live chat as well. Some people have some excellent Amazon device ideas. I want to quickly say man, rightfully points out that Amazon did launch smart ring and smart glasses last year, still haven't been able to see them, except for over one reviewer at one. Publication has tried them on his seams um. Someone said Alston miller said smart countertop, which is really cool.

Imagine like an embedded weighing scale for cooking. I can't see that being interesting, or at least like a smart like board like a smart cut or a chopping board, that you do a lot of different things with that could be good, but those things are they have to go in the washer like you have to be able to throw them, or you have to only handwash them, which is also a lot of trouble. Um Bahamas says that dev for your echo LU. Do you really want Bezos in your toilet? That is the place. This is a joke, I'm joking about literally, it is the most invasive thing I can imagine Amazon doing, but listen.

They just released a health tracker that checks your tone, like the ultimate dude thing like they are doing that so yeah. I can imagine Samsung wanting to get down and dirty with our poop too, because you know they love it yeah uh, and then I also want to shout out to the one person that said hi, I'm in Malaysia, hi, Kigali or TV lee. I think it's how you pronounce your name uh and Malaysia. Oh my gosh, I miss the food um. Do we do have one thing coming in uh from Bryant like? Do you think that it's disappointing that you still need an iPhone to use an Apple Watch? Absolutely we've talked about this um family setup does allow you to set up watches for people who don't have an iPhone only if you already have one so like its still kind of not really true freedom from an iPhone uh, but I mean apple knows that it knows iOS better than android.

It's not going to be able to build a product that works as well on android or any other phone. So I think that's why they haven't made it there's. Just no reason, for I would love for apple to bring it over to android because it would be it would kill the android, the remaining android watch market. It worked as well, yes, but I suspect it won't work as well. That's what I'm saying when, like I think, if you keep asked like this one thing's like hey, look at this nice gadget.

If you were on our side, you could have it. Oh, you'll be like yeah yeah. So I feel like it is. A good attempt is a good way to tempt people back over, because Apple has broadened out certain things. Um uh Apple Music is on android.

Now you know like there are certain things: airplay is coming to more TVs and other things. One thing I have been so sad about, which is, as I've been using an iPhone more because of testing. I can't Chromecast a lot of things. It's so sad. There are some things like google apps like it's mainly for like YouTube.

It's mainly for I think any good video streaming um. It was more like I can. I need to remember the specific instance I'm talking about, but I couldn't uh Chromecast certain things, so I was pretty bummed, but anyway uh, you Chromecast. Is that how you watch TV? Why do I have to tell you this again because you've made fun of myself TV so many times you don't have a normal box for Lin, because I like chrome casting, for like a convenience thing, but not like that, can't be the only way you're watching my main TV thing, it's fine, it's totally! Fine, I'm still living in 2012 is okay. We've got a comment in the chat that, but from Raheem that says.

Do you think that Instagram will ever make an iPad version of Instagram? That usually utilizes its bigger display well Raheem. If you had been listening, if you have been listening to the last couple of uh episodes, we've been talking about various tablets, um the Samsung tablets, the new slate of apple tablets that just came out and one of the biggest complaints is that Instagram is a trash app on tablets. On top of that, I also have a very specific complaint about Instagram UI changes. Just in the last couple of days, I wanted to go to the Instagram explorer page. I have a very active group chat with a few friends and I find memes and other pieces of internet trash on the explore page.

I hit what I thought was going to be the explore page, and they were like surprise, that's reals. Now this is the only one competitor yeah. I I I think Instagram has a lot of work to do. I don't think they are going to figure out a tablet. App, I mean you can look at what the Facebook app looks like to see, though it's a willful, it's a willful thing like Facebook is on purpose.

It's not like a camp like anybody, give a developer a couple of weeks and like they can get a functioning nice Instagram app open like, but Facebook just doesn't want to do it. I think in part it has to do with, and you know how they used to force people to do square photos for years and years right. It's partly to do with the aspect. Ratio thing that they're so precious about fair enough right pictures really only look good in certain size, I guess um, but they could use the extra space for other stuff. It doesn't have to be all for just the pictures.

It could be extra commands or tools. I don't know figure it out. I almost feel like this was one of the things like. Maybe the actual Instagram people just didn't care about like Kevin system and those folks like you know they they they were always about smartphone, photography and being yeah. You keep smartphone photography, so I could see like being.

We don't need tablets if we, if we criticize them enough and loud enough, maybe they'll do something. That's what we've been doing for the past eight years. Now, how long has it been so yeah uh, also quick, sorry to cut uh, you Ben, but quick, shout out to Bambi 222 the social dilemma. They watched our recommendation, and they're still freaking out. I don't know which recommendation they're talking about, but is that one of your recommendations I think I had talked about? I forgot who would mention that, but that is something I still need to watch.

Furthermore, I need to watch it too. So I plan on watching that too now um thanks for that. So speaking of Kevin system, wasn't there like a very brief thing about how he could have been taking over like TikTok, U. S. or something sure yeah, and that who knows something may still happen with, like the new tick-tock uh group that they founded.

So that would be kind of funny like the guy who basically one of the pioneers of Instagram, now being in charge of like the new hot mobile thing uh. That would be there's something poetic about that and a nice few to Facebook too, because he left Facebook in a huff. So yeah yeah, oh boy, there is one comment about uh, Amazon, smartphones. The fire phone was a just like a mess. It was a terrible mess disaster.

Is there any possibility that Amazon will get back into the smartphone market? I don't know why would they's always the possibility? It's always a possibility, but they haven't proven that they uh need to right. I'm sure the fire tablets are selling like hotcakes. They really don't need to they've got that space well owned, like the fire tabs. By the way, I'm I'm ready to write up the new ones, but these things are down to like what 50 bucks like super cheap, super, cheap they're, so cheap they're embedded there, there's Amazon data tracking, embedded, there are ads that they're being delivered to it. So they're also making money off of you looking at these things, so if they could produce a free, smartphone, a smartphone that was completely free, you know that was powered by ads.

That would be the only way. I could see this happening and I could see that happening in the way that, like people to get to people who can't afford a regular right, otherwise that's perfect, but then I've watched too many movies with that premise to feel like you have an idea: wasn't that literally um kinsman was free, cellular exactly and that worked out really well, that was great uh, Samuel, l Jackson, I think, was in it yeah. I almost said nick fury, that was the first one but yeah yeah and, like speaking of which I mean there was a little kerfuffle on Twitter about how um like Amazon, is launching Amazon, pre-k or something for like low income. The entire thing is that everyone was like okay. Well, you could do that or um Bezos and Amazon.

You could, you know just pay taxes, pay your taxes and then perhaps we could have universal or like be on the way to universal pre-k or universal um kindergarten um in Singapore that is mandatory, but yeah yeah yeah. I know you guys have a nice functioning authoritarian society over there, and now I'm jealous yeah all have to be donen't be generally don't be jealous of the authoritarianism like a vaguely like um socialist way like that part is good, but yeah hey we're getting close to authoritarianism. The other thing, by the way that Amazon also makes well and sells a lot of is kindles, so they really, I don't think need to make it. They sell a lot of kindles. I don't know if we have the data, so no, I think they do.

I mean yeah compared to the nerds, some nerds like us by kindles I like kindles, because I like e-ink and I like e-paper, but everybody else is reading on their phones. Me too, I mean I, I have a Kindle. That's just fully gone keypad and yeah like sad, but I'm not going to replace it, because my phone is just fine, but do people do I think that people really use like kindle like the Kindle app on their phone? It's great. It's super great, like it is also you've been honest in a while. Let me be honest, but it seems like there are still a lot of people reading paper books and then maybe some people like reading articles or something on uh their phone, I'm not sure yeah the best by the way, the whole reason to have the Kindle app on your phone is to make that to get the little like sharing widget.

So then you can share to your Kindle account and if you have a proper standalone kindle, then you can read those articles on your e-reader. You read it yeah, it's a good way to pop overcome. I mean I, I don't hate, there's still going to be a lot of people who want the physical book at first when e-readers first started coming out. I thought I was never going to like to give up physical books. Furthermore, I have my in my childhood home.

Furthermore, I still have like shelves full of books, which is great, and they're all kind of going yellow, but there's something to be said about the convenience of having digital books. You have them with you all the time. Whenever you need to read, you don't need to go. Look for the book you're, you know you can store so many in one tiny little device. It's just easy, also e-readers feel almost like paper, so, even though they have backlights now like it's still on your eyes, it's a lot easier.

So I do appreciate that um yeah, that that whole thing is perfect. I do miss the smell, though you can't replicate that anything else Ben. No, I don't. I think that we're just about done so stay tuned like in I guess, starting at one yeah is when the Amazon event starts at one p. m.

Eastern, and we're going up right back, rushing into cover that it will yeah who's going to be doing that live stream no live-streaming. It is just we're pounding out like last year we did almost 20 news stories, and they're not making they're not streaming this to everybody they're only inviting a couple journalists, so we're going to be hustling. This is what we have to do. Okay, so this is like good old-fashioned live blog situation. Yep stay tuned, just keep refreshing in gadget.

com, around 1 p. m. Eastern today and you'll see all the Amazon Paloma stuff, okay and yeah. So thank you, everyone for watching thanks to everyone in the chat, this stream comes to you via our video team, which is Owen, Davidoff, Julio barriers, Luke brooks and Jason shark, but it's powered again by everyone in the chat. If you stuck around for this long, please rate us in iTunes that helps keep everything around.

We, we all live in a world of algorithms. It's the same thing as rating your Uber driver. Five stars remember Uber anyway, thanks, and we'll see you next week, thanks folks, you.

Source : Engadget