RIP iPhone 12 mini... By Lew Later

Apple reportedly switched 2 million units of production from iPhone 12 mini to pro we've been talking about this. We kind of already knew it the fact that maybe out the gate, the mini model, not so hot, not as hot as maybe originally imagined, or maybe we just have too many iPhones to choose from in 2021 2020, but it certainly is starting to look very clear that the models people want more of are either the regular iPhone 12 or one of the pro models and, in this case, they've gone ahead and again, as far as the report is concerned, they have decided to change over some production line, to help out with pro supply and move away from the mini supply that apparently nobody wants far fewer people want than potentially was originally imagined. Does this mean it's a bad phone? Does this mean it will never turn itself around? No, not necessarily it's still the cheapest of the bunch. If you don't include the older models or the iPhone SE, maybe over time through a variety of incentives, maybe they find some places to put those devices but another consideration. Here is the different markets in which apple moves these phones. You may be sitting there in your own specific market thinking.

This is the whole world, like you. Might you wake up on a Canadian morning and just say to yourself? Well, this is how most people live and no, they don't well all right, get it together. I'm usually wrong yeah, exactly yeah, as we were talking about prior to the episode running here, yes, and so different markets have different needs and different wants, and even if there was a push for a nostalgic, smaller one-handed smartphone in one market, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the case elsewhere, for example in China. They think that the lower end models of iPhone 12 are performing better than in the US. They estimate that shipments grew 47 year-over-year in the December quarter, reaching a new 18-month high of 20 market share, driven in large part by adoption of the iPhone 12, which has captured the most iPhone installed, based share of any iPhone launched in China over the past four years.

So you see in China, they want this stock iPhone 12. Oh, I'm sure they want some pros too, but you would have thought hey if they're interested in the lower end iPhone 12, maybe they might go for the mini, but apparently not as much as originally mentioned. We continue to believe that the iPhone will outperform expectations in the December quarter as the mix shift to higher end iPhone.12 models is a tailwind revenue. Growth iPhone 12 Pro lead times remain extended far beyond any model launched in the past four years at 10 days. So when, when the pro originally launched was actually a little hard to get your hands on one in certain markets and the mini thing, I don't know, will they can it? That's really what the question comes down to.

Do you continue with the mini? Can you support it at a lowered at a lower demand? Does it start to make a comeback at some point, or do you ditch it completely with the next model and just say to yourself: people are gravitating towards the other ones, and it's not worth our hassle or our headache. I personally like as many options as possible, but I can also understand if it doesn't fit into your efficiency plans and the expense of keeping those other lines on a phone that you know. Isn't I mean it's not even just the production lines? It's also the designers and everything else involved in keeping an extra model, but we've talked about this in the past. We just have more evidence here to suggest that the mini was not exactly the hit that at least apple expected in the short term. Some AirPods max owners are seeing excessive battery drain, and this is adding to the initial fiasco around the lack of a power switch.

We were wondering everyone was wondering. What are we going to do? How are we going to know for sure that these are turned off when we place them down on the table? Do we have to put them in the case? It was questions out there in the universe, apple fans. Well, there's no light indicator. Is there uh? No nope? It just goes into a low power mode instantly when inserted into the case, via some magnets inside the case that initiate this process on the headphones or when you place them down, it takes a little longer around five minutes. It says: hey we're not being used right now.

Let's do that low power mode thing as well, but, as is the case with any new approach, you want to completely get rid of the power button. Then some people have the potential to run into some issues. If the technology is not perfect, now I'm not saying it's not going to be fixed, maybe there's an update that can address this, but we have now a number of users reporting battery drain overnight, where they had battery going to bed they wake up in the morning. It's all gone, and they say what do you mean I put in a case, but if maybe it didn't slide in the right way or maybe didn't initiate the sequence, some were saying it wouldn't come disconnected from the device it was connected to, even though it was placed flat. Another user says they had 30 battery life.

They went to bed, they came back completely gone, so the argument comes up once again. Would it have been really that bad to just have a power switch as well? Have the power save features, but then also have a power switch on there? Uh and I don't know. Maybe this is one of the things that some future generation adds, or maybe it's a thing that they can fix through software updates and uh, and therefore increase the performance in the future. But in the meantime some people are a little upset that their 550 headphone is not working perfectly. This morning I get a notification via my iPhone that there was only five percent left.

I wasn't even attempting to connect to the AirPods. I was airplane to the HomePod in the room. It's strange, the air pod, maxes weren't even awake, and they still were sitting in the case. Anyone else experiencing problems like this, and then you know the people they pile in, and they pile on so anyway keep an eye out for it. If you personally have a pair of these super expensive headphones.

Let us know in the comments, if you yourself are experiencing any issues with powertrain. I have been using a pair beside my desk since they came out almost and have not experienced the excessive power drain. However, I have a charge cable right there, so I'm right very likely to plug them in when I'm not using them anyway. So maybe I'll stop doing that and keep an eye on the power drain myself. Another thing I haven't found is condensation inside the ear cup.

I check all the time because of those initial reports. You know those little water bubbles up on the inside yeah because of the heat of my head in the cold environment didn't happen. So I'll keep an eye on that, for you guys as well see if that comes up lg considers leaving the mobile business. What are you talking about? You just showed off the rolling phone at CES you're, not leaving the mobile business. Well, maybe they are maybe not right now, maybe in the future they haven't been doing so well, six straight years of losing money in the smartphone game.

Oh, I mean you can't lose money for that long, willy dude, I think you know this. No, you uh you have to, move on yeah, you have to, uh, know when to fold them. You know when to hold them. You know when to fold him and that's a reference of course. Moe knows because he's a card player himself, so big card guy, so he would definitely know a reference like that, and it's really important.

I learned this throughout life myself. I mean at a way smaller scale than lg or Samsung or any of them, but you don't. Sometimes you embrace the failure. Well, sometimes you give the failure a big hug- and you say you know what you know what's good about this. Is it opens up all these other opportunities? Now that I can focus on something else, lessons learned absolutely a lot.

You know people they need to embrace the failure. I find the failure to be freeing. Ah, ah I found the bottom just like when you're having success. You look for the top. You look for the ceiling, you say where is it? I don't know I'm looking for it goes both ways, but it can be uh.

Well, it's really a lot to do with perspective. Like many things in life, it's it's the age-old is that you know the glass being half full or half empty. You know it's Yoda stuff, yes, which that's a little foreshadow coming later, and it's good little foreshadow coming later in the show either way we have a announcement here. After nearly six successive loss making years and a five billion dollar commitment, lg may finally be ready to leave the smartphone business. This is suggested uh well by the CEO inside the Korea herald, which is exactly where you would make an announcement like this.

If you were lg, he sent a message to staffers suggested that a change was coming, and it was about time for lg to make a cold judgment. I, like that cold ice-cold. You know what that's like. Well, the clock is running down. It's the NBA.

The clock is running down it's towards the end, and you know the ball finds the right, shooter, yeah, and you're, watching it as a fan- and you realize at the moment, has not gotten to this individual at all- that that person is ice-cold to the crowd to the magnitude, and they're they're about to they're about to go through this motion, which they have done millions of times this they're just going to replicate it, and the situation has not impacted this movement whatsoever, as they elevate he's just doing his thing beautifully released from the ice-cold position, so, so reasonable yeah. The motion is the same. The motion is the same anyway, so he's ice-cold himself, which I like it looks like whether they're in or out they are going to be downsizing the smartphone business they moved some employees around potentially around 60 percent of the employees working on mobile will be reassigned to other parts of lg's business and the remaining 40. It's unclear. What they're about to work on? They are in a serious slump.

They haven't made money in that department in a long while and of course, there's also increasing competition in the space. As you know, it's no joke that space. You have to, you have to deal with just your next door, neighbor in Samsung, but then you have to deal with apple. Then you have to deal with the Chinese brands sheesh, so they've dipped all the way down to like 1.7 market share or something like that. We'll see what they do.

I hope they stick with it at least past this rollable phone, because who knows maybe that's the one? Maybe they were onto something we'll see. This is an interesting article. It's a few days old, it's from the third but uh. It was tweeted to me and I have featured this particular contributor from Forbes a couple of times: Zach Hoffman. He has a focus and interest on cybersecurity, and he has taken a little look at the WhatsApp situation, which has gotten so much coverage around the globe, and here on this show, and he's looking at okay.

What exactly does WhatsApp know about you? Okay, what exactly? Is it really that bad? What's going on? What do they know about you? How many little data points? How many markers I know sometimes you're interested in these things? Will he do, and then he compared what WhatsApp knows about you or is looking for or how? How many connection points your identity they have, and he compared that to Facebook Messenger, and he compared it to iMessage, and he compared it to signal right, and it's a know he put together it's kind of a low-tech info graph, but I found it interesting nonetheless, and so if you scroll down here, you're going to catch a nice little glimpse into what's really going on, but you got to go down all the way you got to go down. You got to go downtown, that's just not! No keep going down keep going down, keep going that first, one is just versus iMessage. Here we go, that's the one! I love right there. Yes, it's so small, and you know what you don't even need to actually enlarge it I'll tell you why? Because you can just see how many things, and I'll read it to you to one end of the spectrum. The end of the spectrum, knowing everything about you is Facebook Messenger.

I am talking purchases, financial info, location, health and fitness, uh, uh, contact info contacts, user content, browsing history, identification usage data, offer data diagnostics- I mean other data, all the data at the bottom other data, this list, it's like a hundred things. Facebook is a data mining company. That's the that's the thing, and I know that your initial response to that is terrible but like, but let's just chill for a second and recognize exactly what's going on here, Facebook's an ad business it was. It would be like if you added google to this list. Google wants to know everything too, because well that's how ad businesses work.

They actually provide you a superior experience in most cases if they know something about you, you're getting hit with something that may actually impact you affect you that you might actually be interested in. So it's not for nothing, and certainly they want to profit so, but just keep in mind that it's not exactly a fair comparison, because Facebook itself, messenger and otherwise is a more it's. A different business model right, certainly a different business model than imessage. They don't have to do that. That's their trying to sell you a phone yeah at the end of the day, so their whole revenue structure is different, but it is worth seeing anyways and knowing because hey as a customer, you do get a choice between these.

This variety of platforms, so Facebook Messenger on one end. This list is all the data it collects linked to you. WhatsApp is next, it's got! Oh, I don't know about half the connection points of Facebook, messenger. Of course WhatsApp is a Facebook product. iMessage comes after that, linking a few things to you, such as your search history, your device ID your email address and your phone number and then, at the far end of the spectrum.

Yeah, that's your signal sitting. There guess what data it has linked to you! Nothing, and this is increasingly a conversation. Now customers seem to care enough so that you had the mass exodus from WhatsApp over to privacy policy update and towards apps, like signal- and I don't know, what's going to happen to the marketplace right. This has far-reaching effects outside the realm of you and your little messages. I hate to break it to you really do this, has potential effects and impacts on how businesses as a whole operate companies like Facebook and google and what they can actually provide you in the absence of a truly dynamic, ad driven model.

Guess what this show right here relies on a dynamic delivery and an ad driven model hate to break it to you. I don't want to. I don't I don't know about you guys, but maybe this is an interesting hypothetical, but we have sponsors on the show advertising on the show for us, our alternative method is to have it paid for to have people pay for the thing that they want. Furthermore, I message, on the other hand, to sell you a phone. Well, we can't.

Maybe we can sell you a phone yeah, and it comes with free, LU, later forever for life. Yeah. Okay, we'll do that. The blue phone I'll figure that out I'll figure that out later phone all right. Speaking of the WhatsApp privacy policy updates, India has taken a stand and is reportedly asking WhatsApp directly: hey just don't do it.

You have an actual document, a letter sent by India's it ministry straight to WhatsApp, saying please reconsider. We don't think this is a good idea, and might not be all that cool with you collecting this data on our 400 million citizens. That's right, number one market for WhatsApp is India with 400 million users, so even if they lose a handful, it's still a huge impact on all the people that are going to click to accept. So you know that probably the citizenry reached out to this it ministers and said: hey man. I want to keep using WhatsApp, you shouldn't, let them do this, get involved, government get involved and, of course, government regulation inside these tech companies.

I think that's been talked about outside India here elsewhere, United States and so forth. India's government asked the firm to withdraw a proposed change that appeared to require users to share personal data with WhatsApp. Now, when that policy change first popped up, obviously a number of users switched, and we just talked about how signal rose it shot up in popularity in India, specifically it surged four thousand two hundred percent in downloads for signal, but that still only accounts for 2.3 million new installations in India. Now 2.3 million is a lot of installs for a messenger app a company like signal. It's certainly not nothing.

However, it is not that substantial compared to the 400 million users that WhatsApp already has 2 million out of 400 million 2 million out of 400 million yeah. You do the comparison. You run the ratio, and you're like oh yeah. Now. I know why the I?t minister, or is that his name yeah, I team industry reached out because they realize the customer might not actually drive this change and WhatsApp is a platform.

That's there to stay and powerful enough multinational Facebook so forth. So anyway, the Indian government's trying to step in and have WhatsApp withdrawal, WhatsApp spokesperson spokespeople they've been saying: no, no, you got this thing all wrong, so I don't know if they're going to withdraw because of this. Maybe they'll make some adjustments, one last story on the privacy surge and customers gravitating towards more privacy now and into the future. Here we have a record setting day for DuckDuckGo the search engine that people always get mad at me, because I don't consider it because I always say: where are you going to go besides? Google, I always say: are people really using Bing and then people get very upset with me, and they say duck? Go they shout that to me in the street, when I drive past yeah must be very uh, terrifying, yeah! Absolutely I'm like I'm like duck. Go do should I do I need to duck.

You know what I mean because maybe something's coming duck. Hunt Nintendo anyway, uh DuckDuckGo has seen its own very own surge as privacy becomes the thing that people are thinking about. It served 102 million, 251, 307 search queries on January 11th, breaking its past.100 million query milestones for the very first time congrats to DuckDuckGo good job. Now I want to let you know: will that that's a kind of minor number if you were to compare it to google, you want to take a shot at how many searches google serves per day. Oh, it's around 5 billion, oh 5 billion versus 100 million, so yeah, not exactly in the same space yet, but interesting nonetheless, and certainly moving in a competitive direction.

Now I'm just going to round it out for you as far as the various other search options that exist, Bing accounts for 6.45 of searches, that's google's the closest competitor, google, by the way 87.81 percent of searches happen through Google, Yahoo is kicking, kicking still kicking 3.05 and DuckDuckGo is now sitting there with 2.3 if they continue at this pace, they're about to pass by yahoo and maybe even catch Bing yeah interesting, I'm looking at this dip here from Google, it's the same uh increase from uh yahoo at the time. Look at you! I wonder: why are you reading charts right now, yeah yeah? This is a serious show. Congrats DuckDuckGo, very cool. Google has other products besides search, including what is my choice for mapping software. Obviously, Google Maps.

I don't care what platform I'm using I've uh. Well, I use a lot of Google Maps and I tend to think Google Maps is one of the most underrated apps people just take it for granted they're. Just like yeah life before maps, I mean fun from an adventure standpoint. Of course the youngster is listening. They're like what are you talking about life before? What are you saying like what is life before google? What do you, Google Maps? No, it existed, and I'm talking physical maps.

They were. There were different stages, so you had physical maps at one point, or you had to map books which my dad had in the car. When I was young, the yellow ones, remember those- and it would have- I guess, the most current mapping that you could have in a book, and you would go on a trip, and maybe you would pick up here that was will's showing off in ancient mapping. But you know what I always like: maps yeah uh those map books- I always like them so anyway. So we had that and then we moved from that to the map quest era, which was your print a paper map of your trip beforehand, because you weren't going to be connected to mapping software once you left, and then you got the navigation in the car which came before the uh, the smartphone penetration.

So you would have you would tom you yeah, you remember, yeah tom-tom and yeah Garmin, Garmin and these various, but anyway, Google Maps is the way it is right now got it got a little side track there. Google Maps is the way it is right now, and they're, making it even better than it's ever been by increasing the level of street level detail in a handful of cities. For now, but increasingly, this will roll out to even more cities, you're talking about enhanced graphical representation of sidewalks, crosswalks pedestrian islands and street side flora. Oh, you know what floor is. Will he do yeah that's plants and whatnot? Oh, for the time being, you can experience the enhanced Google Maps in the central London region, Tokyo, San Francisco and New York, and we're going to see more cities jumping in their real soon.

This is important uh not just for people trying to enjoy a rich map, but also for people that are uh, potentially traveling in a wheelchair or with a stroller and need to know exactly what type of sidewalk ability and path they're about to interact with. Is it dirt like? I need to notice detail right. So that's pretty cool you're right here we have a new rugged tablet being launched by Samsung. I always had a thing for the active lineup. I used some different active phones.

Furthermore, I think the last one was the s6 Galaxy S6 active. There was definitely a s5 active too. This was a rugged like military looking yeah wow. That thing looks so dated right now, but I thought it was cool at the time it was kind of like, as if your phone had an otter box built onto it, and so it wasn't quite as bulky, but it had similar durability characteristics. I think they gave up on this lineup as far as phones are concerned, but they keep it kicking around.

As far as the tablets are concerned, and this new model, the Galaxy Tab, active 3, is going to target frontline workers, medical professionals who need a very durable device and don't want to be goofing around with an extra case. You know what I mean because then it's like the fit- and you know the grime and the dirt, and you have to be able to sanitize the whole thing easily and if you have a case, things tend to get in between, and so you have it all built right in this thing also has a removable battery built in there. So it's just got a very specific target, and I've always just had a thing for rugged gadgets. I remember back in the day with the Panasonic tough books I was always like. I could drive over it with my car, I'm not going to.

Furthermore, I was like I could yeah because it looks so rugged, then the military aspect of it seems kind of cool, so uh anyway, we have a new tab coming along. That's going to do that. Speaking of another Samsung product. This retro case has set the internet ablaze that that's kind of that's a that's just a slight exaggeration, but it is cool in Korea. Samsung launched these retro cases for your Galaxy Buds pro that play on some old designs, some old flip phone designs.

Actually, if you scroll down and click to the which, which uh yeah somewhere in their get better pictures, is what I'm trying to tell you yeah the hype beast article, that's the one! You can get a better look, you can click through five or six images. It looks like a legit little flip phone. Does it work? No, it does it's not a flip phone. I hate to break it to you will, but you store your buds in there, it's a protective case, and it's got a retro styling to it. So you can be the cool kid for a moment now.

I hate to break it to you. This is only going to be available in limited quantities and for the Korean market. The cases resemble in any call t100 or in any call e700 clamshell phone. These are it's a retro, throwback style. The case covers are going to be available, at least for now only in South Korea, as in-store gifts with the purchase of Galaxy Buds pro until January 31st.

Now you can buy them as well. I guess they're listed as an add-on purchase on the website for 30 bucks. If you want to pick one up a little nostalgia for you there, this PlayStation scalper has aggravated some people now. You know people are still trying to get their hands on these things. I don't know if you knew that and this particular scalper or scalper group, I don't know, carnage bot, I don't know if you've heard of them, but they're very good at getting their hands on these devices and checking out quickly and spoiling things for everyone else, who's attempting.

The most recent attack took place at the UK, the UK supplier store named game digital and this at carnage. Bot on Twitter was bragging about getting over 2 000 checkouts, successfully logged for the day's restock of the PS5, which man. How many did this particular outlet get that might have been the whole boat yeah or close to it? And then he follows up with this is just got. This just keeps getting easier, every time which you know with the purple devil icon as well, which just gets people real irate, and so there were a lot of replies to this particular tweet and uh, and actually even a response from the retailer themselves. They say this morning at 1009 when clicked, when clicked purchased, for the PS5 digital treated to a message saying out of stock, even though others are buying them, including 2000, went to carnage bot.

This is ridiculous. Oh, this is somebody tweeting at the official Twitter handle for the retailer. I was in at 10 on the dot and wasted time trying these different methods, so the bot, the bot scalpers, have gotten better, and they've been able to make thousands of dollars. You know selling these things for about twice the price in most markets, and they are doing it by running these bot networks that are appear to be very effective at being faster than humans. Once again, it's what we've all predicted the bots are better than we are at a variety of tasks absolutely, and we better just uh- accept it at this point, even if it's just buying PlayStation Netflix, is about to bring its shuffle play to all users worldwide.

Now I think this is a very cool feature we talked about in the past. They were trying it in a few different markets, and the question was: okay. Is this? Is this a real thing? Are they just goofing, and it turns out it's a real thing, and they claim that it's been successful, whatever test run they've done in those markets? The idea here well is that Netflix becomes more like TV, you boot it up, and it just starts playing, and it starts playing based on the algorithm and your watch history and maybe a movie that you got part way through and it kind of guesses that you probably want to finish that now you can click a button as opposed to scrolling and looking around like you, normally would or just clicking whatever's on the home page. You can click this shuffle button. Now they haven't necessarily figured out exactly how they're going to run the feature.

Some tests show a dedicated button that you'll click other tests show that you'll just launch straight into it. Maybe this is a setting that you can control, but it certainly seems, futuristic and the more algorithmic the more algorithmic control that exists over our online and consumption experiences, the closer we get to this future, in which we there's no clicking anymore, but that the algorithm is so good at figuring out what to show you when that you will just log in and log out. You know if you know what I'm saying log in and check out, and I would just say you know your eyes just gloss over full zombie mode. It's just feeding you everything you need, or you think you need like work orange. You consider to be mental nutrition.

Yeah you're, like how long have I been on here, uh three months. I don't know anymore. What day is it? Oh, that's terrifying, yeah! I know anyway, I don't think it's going to be like that right away. That's a bit of a downer. I think it's probably just going to be cool right away, like TV was where you can just kind of uh relax a little, and this could solve at least in the short term, that problem of spending more time figuring out what you want to watch as opposed to just watching some stuff and taking some chances like I took a chance on Disney plus the other day.

I told you. Furthermore, I watched the isle of dogs movie. Furthermore, I would have never watched that, but it was just right there. Furthermore, I was like okay. What is it and then next thing I watch, and I enjoyed it, so sometimes it's tough to get introduced to something new when you have when you're exerting this tremendous control over your experience, even though it's just the press of a button, I know it's weird man.

People are crazy uh. You may remember this Hyperion xp-1 hydrogen supercar it landed in Las Vegas for the CES show, which is still, I guess, happening in a very minor way. This is the world's first hydrogen fuel cell supercar, which of course this is a technology that I suppose aims to compete with the likes of electric vehicles except you can you know you can re refill it hydrogen they put out a video traveling down the strip. This thing is full supercar status and I think we maybe we'll get them to drive it up here. Well, what do you say that should be no problem right, yeah yeah? Let's just get this one in studio, real, quick down for that.

Oh yeah, okay, well, anyway, for in the meantime, they're going to drive it through the desert. Very slowly. Might I add, I don't know if this is ready production sample or what this is, but they're just chilling coming through the desert, full camo on the vehicle, and they hit the strip and everything looks really cool. Well. This is certainly a supercar uh coming in at.

I think.2 000 horsepower it's kind of crazy and pretty light. It's pretty lightweight 2 275 pounds because, unlike an electric vehicle, there's no battery pack in there, it's using hydrogen. The xp1 has carbon fiber tanks to store hydrogen and the entire fuel cell supplies power to send power to four electric motors which one of each is on each wheel.500 horsepower at each wheel for 2 000, total 0 to 60 in under 3 seconds top speed 221 miles per hour. Again, that's the type of footage. I'd like to see the other cool thing is the range you ain't going to see a supercar with a 1016-mile range: that's 1, 635, kilometers, nice, so road trip in your hydrogen supercar.

You just got to find places to get more hydrogen along the way, and that certainly is not ready for prime time either way. A very cool looking vehicle now tell me something will, when you put the doors down on it, do you have a picture of it with the doors down no you're stuck now you're dead. There you go tell me, is the driver's side window tiny or what yeah holy holy? I guess it's super car status, but you're going to have to really get your head in the right position to see out of that thing. The way it is right now, speaking of electric vehicles, futuristic vehicles, Porsche's, finally going to hit people with the more budget-minded version of the tie-can. This will be the rear-wheel drive model that is going to come in at 81 000, getting closer to tesla as far as price to performance ratio.

It's I mean look, no one's surprised that a Porsche costs a lot of money, that's kind of their thing, but it is a bit uh. I don't know for some potential buyers or cross shoppers that are looking against tesla and comparing the spec sheet. It looks well, it is expensive and not that competitive on paper. This one, on the other hand, puts it a little closer for some people doing the cross shopping at 81 000, but it still costs 10 000 dollars more than an all-wheel drive, tesla model s, so it's still a premium vehicle, even though it's only rear-wheel drive, and it's going to have likely a shorter EPA range than what the tesla provides. But again its different tastes.

People get to choose whatever it is that they like. This is more of a driver's car in terms of feel and steering, and at least that's what some people suggest, it's all very personal um. So this one's going to make about 402 horsepower. It's not actually going to be that quick. I said it's a driver's car.

That model is going to go zero to 60 in 5.1 seconds, which, compared to my titan turbo s, that that's about half the speed I see which is a bit upsetting, but it depends on what you're looking for. Maybe you just want something finely finished on the inside like a nice interior and that you can customize as well yeah you get a lot more control when you go to Porsche route. That's kind of what you're paying for some of those personal touches, and maybe that's what you want. You don't care so much about 2.4 seconds 0-60 times like the turbo s, or maybe you don't want to spend the ridiculous amount of money on that type of vehicle, so they got. You covered a little more speaking of having you covered, though, if you don't even want to spend that much Mercedes-Benz might help you out they're going to give you this new era electric SUV for 46 000.

So this marketplace is really heating up. Now the one downside with this particular vehicle: it's not a range topper. It's coming in at 265 miles of range per charge, likely granted people kind of adjust their expectations to go with cost 46 000 bucks you're, like all right you know, get around town depends on what your commute looks like 200, 250 265 miles is gonna work for some people, and it's a little SUV. You know you move around, you move around town will, and you have a luxurious interior, and you pick a few things up. You throw Otis in the back.

I don't know. Tell me this reminds me of the make from ford in a way you think so yeah I don't know for some reason. It has like a similar shape. I would say: well it's definitely in the same market. I think the make looks a little sportier than this right.

Furthermore, I would say, but you're right it's. It is the same segment. It's a small electric SUV with a big hatchback on it same number of seats and uh. I don't know about the range. I think that the Mach can do slightly better range than this uh era.

But look at this will it's so many more options. Yeah. What do you think of the interior by the way? I'm just going to ask you that real quick? How do you think the interior stacks up to something like a tesla where's, the interior? Well, the pictures are in there. Well, oh okay, yeah they're! Writing the article there! That's where those okay! Here we go. Will he do it's nice? It's very sporty initial reaction, um! I always like the big screen.

I think that's coming across there yeah pretty much all vehicles mm-hmm um yeah, I like it willy-do gives it the thumbs up now. Obviously the leader in the marketplace, tesla and there's an interesting article popped up here. What would have happened if, instead of buying a tesla model s when it launched what? If, instead of doing that, you have spent the equivalent amount of money just buying tesla stock, so you said you know what I'm going to drive a cheap car for now, and I'm going to take the 77 000 that this initial launch model s would cost, and I know I'm going to enjoy it over the next few years, but I feel like tesla's really the future, so I'm going to take that same seven thousand dollars and instead of buying a vehicle right now, I'm just going to buy the stock yeah. What do you think would have happened? Uh right now? Maybe you would have been able to buy four model. S is that am I right you, my friend are way off.

If you took seventy-seven thousand four hundred dollars back in 2012 that would have bought you. One thousand eleven thousand three hundred and eighty-nine shares of tesla stock. Oh okay, now, of course they have to adjust for the stock split as well, but here's what that would mean for you today, as of January 15th, nine million four hundred and nine thousand one hundred and thirty-six dollars so a little more than four model. Last year, oh man, these stories always make people feel a certain way. Yeah, it's so weird! It's its actually weird that it's an it's it.

The person wants the car at the moment. We all want the things we want, the short term. We want to have the experience. Now we want to hold on to something. We want the enjoyment of something manifested right now, but it is weird that the same 77 as the guy could have bought.

Not this. There is no guy, but any one of us could have put that money to work for ourselves now. I know this stock is inflated, and it's a big-time hype, machine and everything else, but as of today that individual could sell those 11 389 shares for that staggering number. I know people are in shock, and you're thinking about they're thinking about. What's the next thing, Lou tell me the next test, so no, I can't tell you in the next test apologize speaking of tesla, Mr Elon Musk.

You know he did those other things. Besides the car, including the flamethrower, you recall, the flamethrower remember I was shooting it around like a maniac in this place. Yeah, you had a time. I was having a time almost something in the studio. Some would say sprinklers.

I was having a time yeah. Some would say good time anyway, it turns out that even though they called it not a flamethrower, some people found themselves end up with some issues and law enforcement in some different places said: oh, no, no, that's a flamethrower and that's illegal, and you're going to jail right now, and that happened in a few places outlined in this particular article, including a guy in Italy who was apprehended and actually kept in jail for a little while over the possession of such a thing. And another user who encountered in the UK encountered a police raid in which they entered his premises. Looking for his flamethrower gee, and it actually reminded me of us of a personal story which I don't think I've shared on the show before, and I'm going to give like a quick version of it, the the taser smartphone case yeah. You recall that I think you got shocked on that video yeah.

How can I forget- and you can't forget you- no one- forgets getting shocked on video after this video goes up years later. This is a funny intro years later. Will the police show up at my place, yeah? Why is he hitting the groin as well years later? The cops came looking for that taser, because around here that type of device is illegal, even though I wish it was shipped to us, depending on the spot that you're going to own such a thing and see the legal look at young willy do by the way. Are you? Are you 12 years old, there was a fresh face, wow you're, so old? Now, oh, did it actually still hurt? Did it actually hurt right? Now? I wonder: did I end up using it on myself as well? Now just so casually shocking you yeah anyway. The cops showed up looking for it.

At that time I had already. I don't know I sent it back or disposed of it. I don't remember, but I didn't have it, and they were like nah. We just got to tell you they didn't raid, my house or anything. They just said we got to let you know that that particular type of device.

They got a complaint from a person, a local person. It was like. I know this guy is around here, and he has that thing and you better pay him a visit, and it's crazy because yeah you're riding me out yeah. It was crazy, but that's the thing I mean you got to know about these this for different weapons and yeah, and if it know, even if you say on paper, it's not a flamethrower in certain regions, they're going to feel potentially feel differently. I think to date, there's like a thousand cases of people running into trouble over that particular flamethrower.

Did I make that up? The thousand number I read it in an original story: yeah more than 1 000 flamethrower purchasers abroad have had their devices confiscated by customs officers or local police with many facing fines and weapons charges. So I mean yeah, I guess there's some. Some risk involved us. On the other hand, we just had a good time and the police did not visit for this one, so maybe in Canada we're okay, look at me adjusting the flame, I think it's wild MSI is readying crypto mining, specific GeForce, RTX, 30 series, graphics cards. Things are heating up, Mr willy do in the crypto community around these new NVIDIA graphics cards.

We talked yesterday about NVIDIA, maybe shifting its focus and taking crypto seriously again and MSI appears to be doing something similar this article coming on CCF tech, and they seem to have discovered in the list of upcoming graphics cards for MSI, a couple of model names that have shed some light on future plans. The GeForce RTX 3060 ti minor 8g and the GeForce RTX 3060 ti miners. He OC for overclock. These showed up alongside a long list of other GPUs that are currently in the works for MSI seeming to indicate that well, they're interested in the marketplace. MSI has been spotted submitting two brand-new crypto mining graphics cards over at the EEC.

These cards include the ti miner standard or factory overclocked, and the card has a rated TDP of 200 watts retails for 399 U. S. without the mining variant. So I don't know. I think I kind of like this idea, because then I told you on a previous episode.

It separates the two communities a little right, yeah, so there's less conflict where they're like no, no that's a mining specific card. You wouldn't even want that if you're a gamer yeah as opposed to these pictures, that people show these amazing rigs and then the gamers are upset saying I can't even get my hands on a yeah on a 30 anything 30 60 30, 70, 30, 80, 30 90. You know, what's that, like they'll, be saying yeah you took mine exactly if there wasn't a variant exactly, so I don't mind the idea of the variant, but we'll have to wait and see how it differs from the original model once it finally hits and who knows if that'll even be able to hit in quantity. This is another story. Crypto related crypto whale abruptly drains wallet moving 650 million dollars in bitcoin in a single transaction.

This is both incredible and somewhat scary as well. The speed at which tremendously large sums of value can be moved around and that's the that's the promise of bitcoin right. Oh, you want to move 650 million in an instant with a small transaction fee. Bitcoin, that's what happened here, so the other thing is its all on the ledger. So people come in and try to speculate, wait a second what's going on.

That's some big funds and everyone can see it. Everyone can see it, but they just can't see they just don't know who to who that I mean it's anonymous. They can see the transaction, but you see the transaction took place, and this is two things: okay, so first the technology incredible. You move this tremendous amount of money quickly for uh a low fee. Okay, that's awesome huge vote for bitcoin, but on the flip side it brings into question the amount of value of bitcoin held by just a few individuals.

If just one- and it might be a group- you don't know, but if one person presumably can move 615 million or more than half a billion dollars in an instant then presumably they could also pull it out, and then that breeds some level of fear in the fact that prices could be swayed drastically by people selling it off uh. It appears to be that there's some sort of threshold at the 30 000 price point right now that people are investors or whoever speculators. People are comfortable at 30, 000, bucks, and they're buying at 30, 000 bucks, today's rate or the rate of the moment, 35 000, compared to USD, but either way you want to know the transaction fee. Will he do for this? Enormous movement right here what's up uh, this was 17473 BTC worth 16 615 million dollars. The fee was three dollars to move that money.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's nice incapable! You know what language that is french well done. Will he do Jack Ma showed back up? He came out of the woodwork, he's no longer lying lower, he's at least lying less low. He came on to video screens everywhere. Furthermore, he was talking to teachers. Furthermore, he was giving a little speech to.

It was, like kind of you know, it's a philanthropic event, and so he was encouraging um the rural teacher initiative, giving them words of wisdom encouraging them. He participated. It was an online ceremony. You know you get a guy like him billionaire tycoon and uh. It gives some extra heat to your event, so he showed up for that, and he addressed 100 village teachers receiving accolades from the foundation.

Now this ceremony is usually held in person, but he had to come on video this time around because of movie and all the rest of it, and it's its held annually in Santa, and I don't know if you're familiar with this region of china. VIN is very intimately uh. He knows about this region. Where are you VIN? You have ever been to Santa twice, and this is a very tropical, almost region where you would have sand and beaches, and it's like a resort sort of like a resort destination. If you live in China, is that why they say sand yeah, because they're like sand yeah? That is rude, and you are cancelled, sir, oh boy anyway, so normally they would take place there, and it would be a nice fun event, but he had to jump on anyway.

This is a big deal because the guy he was off the radar since October, and everyone was stressing that they were worried. I mean he had obviously some sort of disagreement. It was a closed-door meeting that took place between himself and the government, and then he goes and then and then you don't see him for a while. So people had all kinds of speculation as people do so him showing back up. If you move to the next tab.

Of course, it had a very positive effect on the stock. Alibaba's stock is uh jumping up after this first public appearance. It shot up 7.3 percent to a six-week high in pre-market trading. It's a 6.35 now, but either way it's uh they're on track for a fifth straight gain. So it's obvious that the stock market likes to see jack bah.

If they're thinking about investing in his company they're like ah there's the guy yeah, let's put a billion dollars in their yeah. Let me invest, there's a guy he's been he's done it before he's gonna. Do it again? So the word here is that he was actually splitting his time he was traveling around. I guess he was in Beijing a little. He himself actually was in Santa as well outside the event, so taking a load off lying low.

I think that's also where you would lie low in China. Now I don't know I'll have to visit once I have to visit one hey man, I'm to visit one day and see what this region's all about. You know about this virtual streamer code, Mike or code Mike. You know what I don't know how you say this for uh, maybe two weeks you discovered her yeah in uh on YouTube. What? Yes, I thought it was a twitch thing, she's on YouTube.

Yeah, it just popped up. Tell me what you discovered: uh she's, a virtual avatar and um she's kind of like uh played by someone in the background using motion, detection or motion like capture, I think yeah, that's the technology behind it. This is the new thing. This is the hot new thing. Will you do yeah being a celebrity, but in like a 3d yeah you get to create whatever situation you want like look at even her background, and I mean you get to create the appearance and look how happy she is? You know we can't smile like that.

Just make one of those virtual yeah man, perfect virtual streamer co is how do you say it? Is it code, Mike or Cody code Mike feels weird to say, but anyway has been banned from twitch for a third time? Oh, and I'm sitting there thinking man you're, banning the virtual streamer jeez he's up for a live. There's someone behind it. I know there's someone behind it, but still it seems harsh I mean, and it seems more harsh when you figure out why? But I guess twitch has gotten more strict recently with the banning people are speculating now why exactly the ban took place, and especially since, in the last few weeks, she's been picking up steam, yeah pulling numbers, and so people like just starting to take off what are you doing, twitch what you got against her? So the original speculation was that she may have uttered a particular word which has now been banned on the platform. It starts with an s and ends with a p. Oh right, can we say it? I don't know I don't know.

I guess I'm scared of that word now, because what are you talking about you ban off twitch? For that word, I didn't even know anyway. The word is Sims. I just said it, so I'm banned off twitch, but I'm not on twitch. So I guess I can't be banned from twitch. So apparently that was the first speculation that that name was uttered the other speculation.

That was that she was incredibly drunk during a particular stream with fellow streamer pay money tubby and that's another thing: you're not allowed to do on twitch. They have a strong rule around alcohol consumption on stream, but she's an avatar. Yes, it gets weird. Doesn't it no? No! Your avatar can't be drinking. Oh, I'm so confused like is this person like whose playing her right drinking in the background? Now or is it this avatar? That's drinking these? These are amazing questions.

Oh, this there's! So many questions yeah right, because what about a video game? You could be streaming a video game in which your character, a character in the game, takes a drink right, you're not banned for that. So is this person a person or character, and how is it treated, and how is it perceived and do the same rules apply right? It's a lot of philosophical questions going on yeah, but anyway, it looks like twitch is treating them just like any other streamer. Now that she's been banned, she just posted that on Twitter, the famous meme that one right there. What is the name of that meme? What now this is. This actual meme, though, has a name.

I think it's Pepe. No, I think it's the sage, meme! That's what it says in this article, oh okay, but anyway it's its the frog and thinking or whatever, and the other thing is the individual will probably come back because to be permabanned off twitch. You have to be banned three times within a three-month period to rack up the permanent ban, and she didn't do that. She's had three bands, but they've been pretty split up so right. She probably going to be back.

This thing is absolutely bananas. Man folds one piece of paper for 50 hours to make a samurai look at that one piece of paper. One piece of paper: no cuts just folds check out the video it's embedded below. This is some staggering. This is some shocking stuff we're talking 50 hours of folding origami samurai warrior.

You can, I mean, watch the initial part of the phase. Now he does use like a liquid kind of liquid adhesive just to stiffen the thing up a little at points, but it is all folds. No cutting no tearing look at him. Go pre-creasing holy. Oh my god give us a little scroll forward, so you can start to see it take shape like oh the details, 50 hours.

What do you take a break? You eat? You come back with the hair, dryer you're, folding and folding one sheet one. Why are you not impressed? Will no? This is very impressive. This is very uh right up my alley here, I'm just in shock 50 hours origami, and it's posing it's not like a straight. You know. No, actually it's a really cool pose at the very end.

He puts it just on a black backdrop, and you can see a lot of the detail. Actually, if you go to the end um not to spoil it, you guys should go. Watch the video. I'm going to give a shout-out to this YouTuber. What's the channel name uh, can you read that for me, uh Juno con co, con cola? Sorry, that's very offensive.

What you just did he tried. He tried his best, it's on screen there and yeah. Oh, he only has 400 subscribers wow this guy's about to blow up go check him out. This is insane this folding. It is just terrifying.

The process it's his first video. Oh, how did people find this? How did this end up on Kodak? Well done Brian Ashcraft for tracking this one down a single sheet: 68 centimeters by 68, centimeters wafer thin when shoe paper folded it for 50 hours, samurai, paper craft, 20, centimeters tall tremendous. Well done, sir good luck to you in the future. You know I was watching that Mandalorian thing I told you will yeah well now you have the real world mandalorian, and you know where he is he's exactly where you might expect him to be on the streets of Los Angeles, and he even has his very own baby Yoda, which is really not baby Yoda but popularized as baby Yoda as such he's on the streets of Los Angeles, and he's moving around on an electric skateboard, and you can catch the clip. People are really getting a kick out of it and immediately.

I saw something like this must be a YouTuber of some kind, but play a little of the video. But it's not it's not a YouTuber of some kind. It's actually a comedian playing the role, and he said, look I'm just doing this to give people uh. You know a little laugh because it's rough out there yeah, and so he's not he's just on the electric skateboard, just moving about town, and he's looking a little smoother than mo does on the electric skateboard, because earlier today he spilled a coffee all over the floor. Oh, no and himself all over his face all over the floor when he was on the electric skateboard still working on it.

Eh, yeah he's still he's he's not on the Mandalorian level. Yet for this no, but anyway, people saw the clip figured out. This guy was a comedian and what he was doing, and then they sent it to Favre because they want to try and get the guy a role in the upcoming season, obviously not as Manuel yeah. He takes his place Pedro, but you know just a small cameo for the uh. I don't know for the enthusiasm here.

However, he has been pulled over by a couple cops because he's just not not necessarily obeying the traffic laws there and the cops so far have gotten a kick out of it, and they've been pretty cool about it. Did you know, will that there's, probably dinosaur bones on the moon mo? Has a confused look on his face right now? He's thinking wait a second, but how? Oh? I don't know how about an asteroid so powerful 66 million years ago. Is our feed dead right now? Is it uh? Now that's good. Okay, at least here.66 million years ago, yeah an asteroid hits earth you following me here I got you. It creates a space, an outer space vacuum in the atmosphere that, upon impact shoots, dinosaur contents all the way back up to the moon.

The power, let me just can I just do you mind if I just read a little of this. This is this. Is the catastrophic asteroid crashed into what experts say? Was the deadliest possible angle when it came barreling into what is now Mexico's Yucat?n peninsula? The asteroid was larger than Mount Everest and came crashing through the atmosphere 20 times faster than a speeding bullet. It's so fast that it would have traversed the distance from the cruising altitude of a 747 to the ground in 0.3 seconds. The pressure of the atmosphere front of the asteroid started excavating the crater before it even got there wow the pressure.

When the meteorite touched ground zero, it was totally intact. It was so massive that the atmosphere didn't even make a scratch on it. It just barreled through there perfectly fine the size of Mount Everest, a BR it. The asteroid collided with earth in the sky above it where there should have been air, the rock punched, a hole of outer space vacuum in the atmosphere, as the heavens rushed in. To close this hole, enormous volumes of earth were expelled into orbit and beyond all within a second of impact wow that is uh.

So because of this there's dinosaur bits on the moon yeah. You would think that it would uh, I guess, maybe melt in the impact disintegrate. The asteroid left a 120-mile crater at the disaster zone, vaporizing rock and sending billions of tons of sulfur and carbon dioxide into prehistoric skies. I see all living things within hundreds of miles of the impact site would have been incinerated within minutes and the dust cloud generated by the impact would have blocked out the sun trigger a nuclear winter. Seeing temperatures plunge acid rain falling from the skies and 75 percent of living species wiped out.

Aren't you glad that you're living this is fun? Reading this, like this really intense, I want to narrate this guy's book uh-huh, I maybe it might. I might be a little too extreme with it, though yeah I'm going to have to turn very intense. I'm going to have to toggle it back. Just a touch, but like look at this quote then rocks would have bombarded you from a boiling sky that was beginning to take on a hazy glow. It would have seemed like the end of the world riveting yeah.

So just remember we're floating around we're currently on a rock there's, many other rocks. Some are giant rocks. There's a burning rock, that's the sun. I guess it's less of a rock. It's a hole.

Sun's got a whole thing going on yeah, it's a whole energy thing going on there. It's wild stuff man, you just imagine it's crazy. The amount of energy uh-huh just around space- I guess we're not gonna, have another one of those for a while, but no synthetic cornea helped a legally blind man regain his sight. I love this kind of stories. Man, technology, you can't see you see, I love it, and also I really like this video.

So I think you should jump straight to it. This is a new technique or strategy for dealing with blindness. When you have the disease in the cornea there. This is an implant, a corneal implant revolutionary, in fact, and I think you're gonna. I think you're going to be really impressed with this video, the way that they have demonstrated it.

You have uh the human eyeball, the malfunctioning human eyeball. You have to go in there and make some modifications to allow for this implant to be put in there, and since it's going to be replacing the cornea or acting in such a fashion, you got to uh yeah. Furthermore, you see like this. That's a blind eye right there, you have to carve that part out and have the implant take its place. It's a very cyborg feeling, and so this graphic showcases exactly how the procedure will take place.

You have to, first, you have to peel. This part here down. Look at that. You gotta kind of loosen that part up there, and you just trim it down a little. You guys scrape over here a little.

What are you laughing about? Scraping yeah? You have to scrape over there a little and then you have to make the perfect marking in the center of the cornea. You come down with this tool, which is like a stencil sort of, and it maps all the key points that the surgeon's going to have to work on here for the various uh maneuvers that are about to take place now. The next part is my favorite part. These are going to be not the corneal incision, but it's like a kind of suture check this out boom through these tiny little target points, and these are going to be these uh suturing holes and the sutures themselves are going to be what holds the implant in place. However, you're not going to see them once everything is completed and lifted, so you remove, they call it trap tepid.

What are they? The refine? It's pulled off. The device is fastened to the eye wall. Look at this, oh, my goodness, gracious, how cool and then and then watch they'll reach in with a tool a spatula called the snapper, and it just pops the frame into place. Look at that bang satisfying come on! Man imagines this person is about to see again this part slams back up it all heals together the tissue and everything heals, and it becomes a permanent fixture. Those sutures on the outside will disintegrate, and often the person goes from seeing like dim, shadows being blind to seeing again.

Full integration is achieved within weeks permanently, embedding the device within the patient's eye wow. What do you say? Will science look at that very impressive you got to be happy about that. Come on will site is important. Come on, will oh yeah, all right speaking of science, how about a little local science story? They're working on lab grown meat over there in Hamilton at McMaster university? Oh, and they claim that they've nailed the perfect steak grown in the lab. They say in the future you're going to be able to dial in your steak in the same way in which you buy dairy products right now, where you might want a certain fat percentage and then your steak, you just get that exact steak, so you'd be like.

I need a 15, or I need a 20 marbling yeah. I need a whack, you yeah cool, something like that. So anyway, they've been working on it, they say, look uh. We got to do something here. We feel we can give the real meat taste.

They claim that it's going to be better than those other substitutes, because it is real meat, it's a process where they use tiny, little slivers of actual animal product and then are able to use that into generating far more. They started out with rats. Now I don't know how you feel about consuming rat meat he's thinking about it. They actually didn't even sample the rat version. They waited until they scaled up to rabbit.

I see and they sampled the rabbit version. They're, like you know what that's meat, and so they think it's really promising. In fact, they're creating slabs. Now- and they say, consumers will be able to buy meat with whatever perfect percentage of fat that they, like they use sheets of living cells, thin as a sheet of paper first grown in a lab culture, then concentrated on growth, plates stacked together and the sheets naturally bond to each other. Before the cells start to die, they say it feels and tastes just like meat, and they claim that their process will there's no reason that their process will not work in the future with beef, pork and chicken there's, and they think that their stacking model can also work in large scale production settings.

So they are preparing to commercialize this meat project, and they claim that their new product has the best chance of acceptance among meat eaters, because it is still technically meat. Now I uh I'm going to reserve my judgment. I of course, have not tried such a thing. Would you try such a thing? If you were given the opportunity I'll give it a shot, you give it a shot, yeah and see what you're working with yeah I wouldn't be. The first.

No, would you would be the second? No I don't know I I I you're right. It's who's, the first to line up, I mean they're, using the cells, the actual cells. It's interesting. I wonder my real question is for people who don't eat meat. If all of a sudden, this yeah works for them, or is it still a problem because the origin of it, even though it's not um yeah, it is sustainable right.

That's the argument more sustainable, they say, but I guess you know here's the thing will everything that humans do there's a residual you wake up in the morning. Something dies you roll out of bed. Somebody something suffers. I don't know we just we make it. We make a footprint and impact we try to minimize it yeah, but just it gets real squirrel because you're like I'm, trying to minimize my thing, and I'm like, but you drove the thing over.

You know it's like you know what it's like. It's like, a celebrity that flies a private jet is bubbling up the atmosphere, but then is telling you that you have to cut back on your. You know what I'm saying: its people have it's a really weird psychology around the whole subject, but I think all of us know that some version of this seems futuristic. Like some version of this feels you know what it can go dark too. I don't know it can't it like how much of the world's supply of food would you want to be lab grown because, wouldn't you worry that some sort of additive, it's just an enormous experiment, really it is yeah, but I guess so is living day to day.

You never know. What's going to happen. No good luck. Thanks.

Source : Lew Later