Netflix Getting Physical?

Netflix Getting Physical?
Number	3585
Broadcast Date	JULY 31, 2019
Episode Length	30:39
Hosts	Tom Merritt, Roger Chang
Guests	Scott Johnson

Apple reported revenue of $53.8 billion, up 1 percent year over year despite revenue declines in Europe and China, a team led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang at UCSF, has developed a brain-computer interface that could decode words and phrases in real time and Samsung announces the 10.5-inch Super AMOLED Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 tablet with a Snapdragon 855 processor, 15 hours battery life, and an S Pen that charges wirelessly.

Guest

• Scott Johnson
  • Frogpants

Quick Hits

• Spotify hits 108M paying users and 232M overall, but its average revenue per user declines

Spotify added 8 million subscribers last quarter, missing estimates by a half million. Spotify says monthly active users grew 7 percent on the quarter to 232 million and paid subscribers grew 9 percent to 108 million. Due to free trials and discount promotions, average revenue per user fell 1% since last quarter to €4.86. Spotify reported a revenue rise of 31% over last year narrowing its operating loss to $3.34 million. Analysts expected Spotify to lose $62 million. Spotify has reached new licensing deals with two of the four major record labels with active talks ongoing with the other two. Spotify's podcast audience grew more than 50% since last quarter.

• DJI’s new FPV goggles and camera are for high-definition drone racing and filming
• DJI aims for the best first-person drone experience with new goggles, controller and more

DJI announced new first-person view or "FPV" goggles, a high-definition camera and transmitter. The FPV Experience kit includes goggles, two transmitters and two cameras for $819. The "Fly More" kit includes a Phantom-style controller, the goggles and one transmitter and one camera for $929. The kits can stream 720p video at 120 or 60 frames per second with a latency of 28 milliseconds at a range of up to 2.5 miles.

• Samsung says Japanese curbs cloud outlook as profit halves, shares fall

Samsung reported profit fell 56% last quarter as memory chip prices declined due to oversupply. Samsung's head of investor relations Robert Yi warned that trade restrictions between Korea and Japan and the US and China mean, "we no longer believe it is possible to reasonably predict or forecast our free cash flow for 2018 through 2020.” Samsung projected its NAND chip inventories will come down and reported server customers buying more DRAM which is expected to continue. Operating profit for Samsung's chip division fell 71% and profit for mobile fell 42% over last year.

• Chrome 76 arrives with Flash blocked by default, detecting Incognito mode disabled, and PWA improvements

Chrome 76 has launched for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. It now blocks Flash by default. Users can turn Flash back on in settings if they want, but keep in mind that Flash support will be removed from Chrome entirely next year. Chrome 76 also prevents websites from knowing if you're using incognito mode. And an install button for progressive web apps now shows up in the omnibox.

Top Stories

• Virtually every Apple business grew in every region this quarter—except the iPhone

Apple reported revenue of $53.8 billion, up 1 percent year over year despite revenue declines in Europe and China. iPhone revenues fell 12 percent from $26.5 billion last year to $26 billion, meaning the iPhone now makes up less than half of Apple's revenue for the first time in 7 years. Services grew 12.6% year over year to $11.45 billion with 420 million paid subscribers across all offerings, driven by strong growth of the app store in China. Wearables, iPad and Mac all contributed around $5 billion each. Apple also noted a 50% increase in monthly users of its TV app and reported Apple Pay has doubled since last year to almost reach one billion transactions per month. Apple said despite slowing phone sales, its install base is higher than ever, including a rise in China, due to customer loyalty and a strong after market. Next quarter, Apple will have launched the Apple Card in August, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and new iPhone models.

• Apple joins Google, Facebook, and Twitter in data-sharing project

Apple announced it will join the open source Data Transfer Project, which is developing interoperable systems to let users move data between services. The aim is to allow direct transfer of data without having to export to a hard drive and then import into a new service. The Data Transfer Project includes Tim Berners-Lee's Solid, Mastodon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter.

• Facebook Closer to Augmented Reality Glasses With Brain Implant That Decodes Dialogue From Neural Activity

A team led by neurosurgeon Edward Chang at UCSF, funded by Facebook reality Labs published in the journal Nature Communications that it had developed a brain-computer interface that could decode words and phrases, both heard and spoken, in real time. The process decodes two kinds of info from two parts of the brain to add context and increase accuracy. A machine learning algorithm uses the activity to determine if a person is listening or speaking then uses context of what the patient heard to determine what sound is being imagined. The system could decode perceived (heard) and produced (spoken) speech with an accuracy of up to 76 percent and 61 percent using a restricted set of questions and answers. The aim of the research is to restore speech in stroke or spinal cord injury patients. Next steps in the research are to improve the algorithms and widen the vocabulary the system can understand.

• Netflix tests tracking your ‘physical activity’ to improve video quality

Security researcher BetoOnSecurity noticed that the Netflix app on Android requested access to his physical activity data. Netflix told The Next Web that "this was part of a test to see how we can improve video playback quality when a member is on the go." Not all Netflix accounts are in the test and Netflix doesn't have any rollout plans at this time. Android Q has added an activity recognition permission to Android Q to let developers know if you're in motion when you're using an app. That could be used to help figure out the best way to buffer video so it doesn't skip.

• ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC are suing free TV streaming app Locast

Locast is a free, donation-supported internet service operating in 14 cities in the US that streams local broadcast stations over the internet in their home markets. It is operated by Sports Fans Coalition NY, a non-profit operation taking advantage of a 1976 law that allows non-profits to retransmit broadcast signals as long as it did not receive any “direct or indirect commercial advantage.” After operating for a year and a half, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have jointly filed a lawsuit against Locast. The suit alleges that Locast has admitted it is used to help authorized services negotiate lower carriage fees with broadcasters. The suit also alleges Locast is securing commercial advantages in the form of nationwide app distribution and collection of viewer data. And the suit alleges that AT&T and Dish are commercial beneficiaries. AT&T has donated money to Locast and includes the app on DirecTV and U-verse set-top boxes. Locast founder David Goodfriend used to work for Dish.

• Samsung targets iPad Pro with the Galaxy Tab S6

Samsung announced the 10.5-inch Super AMOLED Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 tablet with a Snapdragon 855 processor, up to 15 hours on a charge, and an S Pen that charges wirelessly and attaches magnetically to the back. The Tab S6 also has a rear dual lens camera with a built-in Neural Processing Unit for scene optimization and an optical fingerprint reader built into the screen. The Tab S6 sells for $649 with 6 Gigabytes of RAM and 128 Gigabytes of storage or $729 for 8 Gigabytes of RAM and 256 Gigabytes of storage. Preorders begin August 23.

Mailbag

Hi Gang,

The first purpose I thought that the Soli radar in the new Pixel 4 phones would serve is interpreter for the deaf. Your description of the technology a month or so ago screamed accessibility feature with precision to distinguish finger gestures. And why invent a whole new gesture vocabulary when such a language already exists?

Granted, it'll need to be translated to the various sign languages that correspond to spoken languages, since there is no single one for the world. But they've already got the Google Assistant working for those spoken languages.

I remember learning a little bit of sign language back in elementary or middle school in the 1970s. I don't recall if it was part of school or not. But like many of the accessibility functions on computers and phones, some of these things leak out to the general population as they are handy.

I imagine that such functionality could initialize a revolution in tech for the deaf.

I don't know anyone who is deaf personally, so this speculation may be way off. But when you first talked about it, I recall hearing the word "accessibility," leading me to think it was for sign language. I was sure that if Allison was on that show that she'd have pointed that out.

The air conditioned shirt on Monday's show caught my interest. Looking into it.

As always, take care.

Sent by Michael from suddenly summer Yokohama

Links

• This episode on dailytechnewsshow.com
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Preceded by: "Capital 100M Records Stolen"

Netflix Getting Physical?

Followed by: "Patent Pretending"