Ep. 1388: Where we turn on the lights

-It's Wednesday, November 20th, 2013, this is The 404 Show on CNET. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nunez. -Well, guess what? Guess where we are? -We're back. -We're back! -The lights are turned on back on. The darkness is over. -The darkness has ended. The dark ages are behind us. -Yeah. -We're back on video and we're in the new studio and I think it's gonna on a permanent basis. -I think we sound a lot better too. I mean, you know, for everyone watching or listening, definitely let us know because a lot of people were unhappy with the Halloween episode. That was a beta episode. I think now we sound a lot better. -We do. I know I do. I don't know about you, but I know I do and that's really all we can ask for. Welcome to the show. We're very excited because joining us today is Mr. Xbox One-- -Uh huh. -who's gonna be our-- our fourth host for the program today. -Yeah, I'm excited to talk about this thing. -Yeah, he's gone a lot to not say. -Yeah. -So, we'll get to that. There's a lot of stuff going on in the program that will get to. We're very excited that we're in the new studio, but it's still business as usual. -Uh huh. -So, let's get to the first thing. Let's talk about Xbox a little bit. -Yeah. -The review went up last night and I'm getting a lot of questions that I hopefully have answers too. -Yeah, I have a lot of questions about it myself. -We gave the day or I give it a 7 as opposed to a 7.5 for Playstation 4. I think it's-- it's definitely a forward thinking Console, but doesn't necessarily deliver on all of those ambitions. -Uh huh. -It's not gonna completely revolutionize the way you watch TV because simply put it doesn't work perfectly. -Uh huh. -The games are there. The games down the road should be there. I know the box there's just not enough games to warn a purchase, but the ones that are there are pretty good. -Yeah. -And I think you're getting a better gaming experience out of the box with Xbox One, then you are necessarily with Playstation 4. But that's a neck-a-neck sort of race. -Uh huh. -All right, so lay it on. Where do you-- -Okay. So before we get into, which one you should buy or refuse to buy at all. Let's talk about the voice recognition and all the great features that you get with it and I say great sarcastically 'cause really the only exposure I've had to the Xbox One is our how-to editor, Dan Graziano, screaming at it for the past week. -Right. -He's been testing out all the most control features-- -Yeah. -and the voice activation features. I don't know. In that sort of anecdotal review, I didn't see like it was working out that well. Did you try that? -Yeah, of course, I tried it. I mean, it's just not there like the voice stuff is not ready to roll a hundred percent. -Yeah. -It's just-- It's not perfect. And when you're trying to like sell a product on this dream-- -Uh huh. -it better freakin work, man. -Yeah. -And it simply doesn't like, I got a wife, right? I got a wife who loves HDTV. We talked about this yesterday, right, or maybe the other day. -Uh huh. -She loves HDTV. It's like the number two go to behind Bravo for here. When she wants to watch a show or she wants to watch like houses, like selling, renovate, whatever-- -Right. -she wants to watch HDTV. She's supposed to say Xbox watch HDTV. -Right. -And this thing has no idea what's she's saying. -Uh huh. -And you know, that's the case with like, Yes Network too. Like I couldn't get that to work. -Right. -There's definitely a few words in our vocabulary that our channels-- -Yeah. -that connect simply will not understand and I don't know if that's gonna be a fix that's comes down the pike. I don't know how that works. -Uh huh. -But as of right now and the way it will be sold Friday when it goes on sale, it cannot understand that. -Uh huh. -Yeah, it's funny 'cause I remember when the press release happened, they were claiming that it could pick up a whisper when you walked into the room. -No, that's wrong. It cannot. -Yeah, definitely it can't do anything like that. -And what really pissed me off is when I would mute my TV-- -Uh huh. -and then give a commands, it still wouldn't have-- it wouldn't increase the accuracy of listening-- -Right. -which you would imagine eliminating any sort of ambient noise and background interference would help the case. No. -Right. -And I don't want like people think am like pissed off with this thing. That's not the case. -No. See? That's what I wanna ask you too from a gamer's perspective because I don't play games myself. But if I did, I would imagine that voice controls and motion controls wouldn't be any easier than just picking up the remote or the controller and just doing yourself with practicing a band. -Look, sometimes it's better. -Yeah. -Sometimes, when you walk into a room and you're like Xbox on and the thing actually turns on-- -Right. That's kinda cool. -that's kind of cool 'cause I don't have to go around searching for this guy. -Yeah. -You know this keep the controller. I know I can just turn it on and watch TV and I'm good to go. -Uh huh. -Yeah. It's funny like Dan was just screaming into it the entire day. Yesterday, he was like, "Xbox go home." And he just be like waving at it. He just-- -The motion stuff I think-- -[unk] preventing on the human being using it. -The motion stuff I think is just-- it's not for me. I don't know who that's really for. -Yeah. -But you know, there's a lot of issues with other things in the OS and like the operating system is not very intuitive and there's a lot of confusing sort of clutter there, even though it is designed into a seemingly simplistic fashion, there's stuff like you will get confused in the first week you use it. You're gonna be like, "Oh, I thought I was here. Now, I'm over here. Well, how do I-- how do I reach this section? -Even if you had a 360 before? -Oh yeah, even if you had a 360. -Okay. -Those two OS is only very slightly connected. And then like, I'm reading on the reviews around the internet and I'm getting pissed off because no one is really taking into consideration the fact that these things are-- not only is it $100 more, but when you pay the 60 hours a year for Xbox LIVE Gold, you kinda have to. You kinda have to pay for that. Because if you wanna do any of the cool stuff that Xbox One offers-- -Yeah. -that is not included unless you're a Gold member. -Yeah. -Like I can stream freakin Netflix without a Gold membership-- -Yeah. Yeah, we talked about it yesterday. -that flew a couple of years, that ain't gonna work this time around. -Uh huh. -They have to strip it up. You-- Okay, so, I know I'm getting a little runty here, but here's what I think they do. And talking around, people are gonna buy this system. It's a good console, man. It's a good console. Don't feel bad if you pretty ordered one, because you're gonna be well served. -Uh huh. -But there's a lot of hidden stuff going on. I think what they should have done was take out the fact that connects automatically including the box. Take that out if you want offer the deluxe version for $500. -Right. -Why not offer version for $400 that loses the camera and then maybe presents the OS in a fashion that's not so relying and tendered to the connect experience. Because there's a lot of gamers myself included who don't frankly give a crap about controlling everything with my hands and my voice. -Yeah. -That's the other thing. Some privacy and security concerns came up. For me when I was reading the review, is there a way for you to can turn them-- -Yeah. -that you can turn the microphone off? -Yeah, you can unplug. -Because they always-- -It doesn't need to be plugged. -Okay, so you don't always have to have that. -That was not always the case and they clearly hit a roadblock where you can kinda see that they just like-- All right, we'll just make it so you can disconnect it and that's-- -Yeah. -and that's visible. But, it's gonna really do a lot of work convincing you or reminding you that it's unplugged. -Uh huh. -So, that sort of the long and short of it. -Okay, so that's motion control. Let's talk about the actual controller. -Okay, here it is. -Because it's completely redesigned. I read a story about how they weren't initially gonna redesign it at all, because there was, you know, obviously the 360 is really popular. -Yeah. -It's been up for a while. There are people that comfortable with it. -I don't know if they should, man. -Yeah. You don't like the new version? -This is good. -Uh huh. -It's a good controller, but at the same time it's-- In my opinion, I mean I have this thing for like what, three weeks now. -Yeah. -It's not as comfortable as the 360 one. -Huh. -It's just not. It has a weird sort of angular design. Here, hold it. Give it the world, guy. -Yeah. -Go check it out. There's something kind of unsettling about it. The triggers-- The pull triggers I think feel really nice. -Uh huh. -But there's-- -I give like I'm holding this as if imagining playing a game that I have no idea how to control-- -Well, the best part is that you're holding it like this is the first time you've ever held any controller. -Yeah. I have-- [unk] -Are you blown away by its technology? -I'm like-- Yes. Oh, yes. It is plastic. -It's amazing, isn't it? -What's-- You know what's really cool about this and way-- And look, connect has moments of brilliance. Yeah. It's got IR sensors going on. -Oh, that's a control stuff on your TV. -Well, not only that, but like when you're holding it, the IR combined with the connect camera recognize you. -Uh huh. -You don't need to sign in. You just hit the button and it signs you in because it knows you're holding it. -That's pretty cool. -And if I give it to you and you hit the home button, it knows you're holding it. -Uh huh. -So that's kinda cool. -Yeah. -Also, if you put it down for a little bit and it's not moving for a while, it will turn off 'cause it knows no one's using it. -Okay. -That's kind of brilliant as well. -And that's good 'cause they don't take rechargeable batteries, right? It's a AA, I think. -They don't, but I think they will eventually, you know, this is-- this doesn't do junk for our audio guys, but you know there's two AAs in the back. They will offer a rechargeable battery pack. -Why is there a USB port on there? -That's what is for. So that will recharge the rechargeable battery packs when it comes out and then at the bottom is the old headset jack, which looks weird. It's proprietary. None of the old headsets you have are gonna work with this. -Uh huh. Yeah, I remember a lot of people complaining about the 360 controller having some dead spots on joysticks. Do you find that-- -Dead spots? -Yeah, like how-- sometimes, they would move in around and it wouldn't register. Do you find that with these new ones? -Nope. I did not find that. The joysticks kinda feel and respond the same as far as I'm concerned. -Uh huh. -Big improvements of the D-pad. The D-pad is no longer on this disc that would accidentally-- you know, you'd hit like you'd wanna go like north, you know, west then you'd hit north. You know, you wanna basically have that independent operation. And now that it's carved out more-- more functionally, it performs better as a result. -Uh huh. Very cool. -I know. Am I crazy or am I just so glad these are over with. -What? The two console of the disc? -Oh, god it's dude. You don't understand. -Yeah. -I feel like I'm gonna give birth to life. Some freakin Xbox baby. -Yeah. -Playstation Xbox love child. -You know what's really cool? I was watching Dan sort of play it, both Dans, Dan Ackerman and Dan Graziano, and they were multitasking like crazy. They were watching TV at the same time that they were playing a game. I didn't realize there was a picture and pictures you could watch and do both at the same time. -I'm glad you brought that up. Xbox introduces something called snapping so you can snap certain apps. -Yeah. -So you can even snap Live TV. -Uh huh. -When you do that though, the Live TV tends to jitter a little bit. I don't know if know this. I watch a lot of hockey-- -Uh huh. -and hockey is a very fast action a sort of, you know, picture and when I was snapping hockey in a like Dead Rising 3, it jitters a little bit. And I remember when we were getting a demo, they were like, "Oh, that's gonna-- You know, it takes a little bit to catch up." He's doing it for hours. They didn't really see noticeable improvement. But again, stuff like that will probably get fixed as we go along. -Uh huh. -You know, I hear a lot of people like, "Why can anyone release anything working out of the box?" That's not the world we live in right now. The second you open up the door to digital downloads out of the Cloud-- -Right. -that basically gave everyone a pass this order just hand stuff that was maybe dead on arrival, which has not completed yet. -Right. -And that's what we're dealing with now. -Yeah. -And people are always gonna complain. If they had pushed the release date back to resolve some of those problems-- -Oh, I never done that. -they would have complained about that too. -Once they announced that date, that's it. -Yeah. Yeah. -Unless your name is Watch Dogs. -Right. So-- Yeah, that's another one. They got pushed back, right. -They did. -Okay, so let's talk about this other thing that I thought was really cool. You can actually record yourself playing games and then publish that within the rest of the Xbox [unk] -Right. And you can do have a Playstation as well. -That's pretty cool. You just tried that? -That feature wasn't ready by the time the review went up. But I have tried it out since and it works. It's cool. You can do like a narration. -Yeah. -You can do like a live commentary. -Yeah, it's pretty cool. -That's cool. I mean everyone can do that. -You can do like highlight stuff. -Yeah. -It's just like a football game, you know. You can draw in the screen. -Right. You can do like illustration stuff that you can't do elsewhere. -Yeah. -So, it is kinda cool. -Or is that one of those gimmicky things that most gamers won't ever use? -It depends. I mean, it depends on how it works out. For me, you know, I'm bummed out that it does-- it won't work a twitch until next year. And that's like a big deal. -Yeah, right. Okay. -But it is cool that you can sort of do that illustration stuff. -Right. Okay. So what else? What else do you wanna talk about likes-- just likes? -I mean, you know, I'm kind of, you know-- I don't know, again, I don't know who I'm recommending this too. -Yeah, everyone knows by now that if you already have a 360, don't upgrade. -Yeah. -If you already have PS3, don't buy the PS4 right now. -They're cool. -What situation would you find yourself and where you'd want to buy something? -I guess if you're just like-- -If you just have $600-- -I don't know, if you don't have a console already-- -Yeah. -But I would even say like, "Man, go get a 360 on Black Friday when it's like 200 bucks and 7 free games. -Right. -So, it's tough, you know, for the hard core people to have it pre-ordered. Get it. You're gonna like it. It's fun. It's innovative. -Uh huh. -It doesn't work a 100 percent, but look what does. For people who are on defensive about it, I've really think there's a strong case to be made in waiting. -Uh huh. -There's nothing wrong with waiting a year. -Yeah. -I think you should wait at least-- at least 6 months until there's a game like Titanfall where there's another exclusive Xbox One experience that you absolutely must go out and play. And that's probably gonna be in March when Titanfall comes out. -Right. -The Titanfall is also in Xbox 360 game. -Uh huh. -So that there was another sort of wrench into the whole thing. -Just give both, you know. -Yeah. Stop being a little punk. -Just roll the grand and just buy both. -Just buy 900 bucks works of game hardware-- -That's what I wanna suggest. -like this month. -Yeah. -Man, you know, I'm just so glad that I-- I don't know, I just feel really bad for like the kid with the part-time job. -Yeah. -That has to save up for like seven years. It's tough man. -Right. -They still are expensive. -The kid and the parents, the parent is who I feel the worse. -I could be a good parent too, you know. But like this-- You know, I don't know about you, but like in my family you got one big gift and that was it. -Right. -And if you did or maybe I like a couple little ones. -Yeah. -For me like one-- it's gonna be one or the other. -Man, imagine how many A's of kids gonna have to get on this report card to get this. This is a gift now. -Well, that didn't fly in my family. -Really? You went on like a reward basis-- -So, you have like an incentivized-- -Yeah. -That's so brilliant. -I was like, "If you bring home five A's on your report card, then I'll buy you a book." I can't imagine-- -But think about why that makes sense. That's how the real freaking world works. -Yeah. -You're basically like by not doing that, you're kind of denying your child the information about what happens in the real world. -Right. -Like positive productivity is rewarded through compensation. -Do you wanna know what mom used to do, which is kind of messed up in retrospect is she would do that where she would, you know, offer me and then send it. But we would actually go out and buy the toy before any of the schooling actually begin. So then, as I was studying-- -She's dangling-- -that would be in front of me. I would hold on the kitchen table, you know, so I can just be like, "Well, there's a thing that I might not get." -Yeah. -And then if I didn't get the grades, then she would destroy it in front of me. -That's a new level of like evilness right there. -Yeah. Yeah. And if I wasn't then she'd be like, "Well, I guess you're not getting it this semester, then try harder." -Is that how she would say it, -Yeah. -or would she be like dangling it in front of your face like, "Oh, here's a new-- I don't know, what the hell-- a bicycle." -Yeah. -Right. -That's crazy. It's always like [unk] toy or something like that. Yeah. And she would just dangle that in front of me. -Wow. -That cruel. But it works. -Is that like a Tiger mom thing or is that-- -Kind of. Yeah. Totally. That's mom. -That's messed. Ariel, do you have like experiences like that? -I used to get rewarded, but nothing like that. -That's so-- -That would be a Nintendo game if I like model one or something like that. -Right. Right. -Holy Molly. That's nice stuff. -Yeah, I wanna know how kids are incentivising. I saw this thing on Reddit a couple of weeks ago that was like, you know, if you want the Wi-Fi password-- And this was like on his computers like a poster note on his-- this parent's kids computer. -Yeah. -And the poster note said, "If you want the Wi-Fi password, do all your homework and chores." And so the parent would just change Wi-Fi password everyday and when they completed their tasks, then they would be able to go in the internet. I think that's pretty cool. -I would make the answer to the math equation in the Wi-Fi password. -Oh, yeah, there you go. -You know. -Yeah. What if I-- -It's just two. -Yeah. -What's the password to your Wi-Fi? Two. -Yeah, it's really easy equation. -That's awesome, man. All right. Cool. So, there it is, Xbox One. -Yeah. -Please do me a favor. Go and read the full review. That's at Cnet.com. I don't know-- Just go to Cnet.com. -Yes. It should be on the front page. -Yeah. -Just do that. -Yeah. -Thank you. Read it and then hit at 5, 4, 3-- 4 to 500 times. -Right. -Go. -But we haven't actually talked about 360-- I'm sorry, Xbox One versus PS4 yet. I mean, if you only had just one, which one you go it? I mean, you obviously gave the PS4 better score. -I did. It got a half point better. -But it's-- because the-- it's cheaper? -I think it's-- I think-- I'm taking into consideration the whole package. If PS4 had these lofty ambitions of controlling your home theater and all that, all that would be taken into consideration. It doesn't. It's a $100 cheaper. Playstation Plus is a better value over Xbox LIVE Gold in my opinion. -Uh huh. -And pretty much on paper. So, you're kinda paying this $100 premium and you're more or less forced into paying the $60 a year Xbox LIVE Gold. -Right. -So, do the math, you know. The cost of ownership is clearly higher with Xbox. -Uh huh. -Exclusive games that bringing on it. -Yeah, it is a little bit and in that field, I think, you know, Xbox kind of edges up Playstation 4 a little bit. -Uh huh. But you know-- And to be totally honest, the reviews are better for the launch exclusive games. -Uh huh. -So far, they're-- -For the PS4? -No, for Xbox. So, Dead Rising is getting decent scores in the 7s and 8s. I think that games like a 7. Forza is getting in the 8s and 9s and I agree with that. The game is amazing. And then Ryse, which is the embargo lifts tomorrow. I think that's-- that's a 7 or 8-game also. -Uh huh. -So, you know, we'll see where all the dust settles with that. But you know, Plastation 4 has many more independent offerings, but it's like, "Do you buy a console just because there's some indie game that you wanna play?" -Yeah. -Maybe for a small group of people, sure. For most people I think that's a really awesome bonus. -Uh huh. -And you buy console 'cause you wanna play those blockbuster games. You have a steam account because you wanna play indie stuff. -Right. Right. -And indie stuff-- -[unk] a lot to pay just for those games. -Right. Indie stuff isn't very graphically intensive so you can run that on basic computers. -Uh huh. -Where you gonna be at the launch tomorrow night, right? They're doing another midnight launch for the Xbox One. -I'm sorry, I didn't like ads like this. -No, I understand. You've been in the Gouache, the video game Gouache for the past few weeks. -Somebody shit me-- -Ariel, you have to tag along with them again, right? -Oh, not tomorrow. -No? -Yeah. -Solo mission? -I did that last time. Yeah, Mark is gonna go. -Gotcha. -Yeah. Yeah. -Okay. -Well, if you're in line ask-- I wanna see if anyone actually bought both. I'm sure, right? This got to be something people out there that-- -Yeah. You know, that's a good question to ask people online be like, "Hey-- And I'm gonna do Ariel-- I'm gonna the thing were like, "Hey, if you're such a freakin Xbox fan boy, why didn't you pre-order this thing instead of braving the cold." -Right. Yeah. Yeah. -Freezing off those itty bitty nutties -Yeah. Can you do that? -Because everyone's freezing nutties off man. Hold on to those nutties man. -And you won't buy both. You can combine that with a nice game and Knockout red line. -Yeah. Just clock them random. -Yeah. -What a freak! -I was looking videos of that yesterday. -It's just a piece of-- -I didn't engage in a game with it. -No, but you're-- you're freakin' propagating the-- -Well, I didn't know that. You like you and Ariel were telling about this game that's gone really popular in New York and New Jersey. -No. it hasn't gone very popular. -Yeah, it has. There's a lot of videos out there on the World Star. -It's not cool. -First of all, you should never go on the World Star. -Yeah. -But if do, there's a lot of Knockout videos out there. -I'm not happy with that. -This is like the phenomenon. If you didn't hear the show yesterday of kids filming themselves, walking up to a random person-- -They're not filming themselves. -Yeah, there's videos of them on the internet. -What? Like how freakin' dumb do we need-- -Walking up to random people on the street and just knocking them out. Just punching him in the face. -Yeah, that's the goal. -It's crazy. -I don't wanna live in a world like that-- -Yeah. -Yeah. -nor were-- -As if you were already scared with teenagers already. -Yeah, but you're the one like, "Yeah. Come on, I got to see it. This is great." Stop doing that, man. Stop giving them the traffic. -Yeah. I know. -Why do you have to say that? But it's just a crazy story. -Yeah. -I'm just doing research. All right, let's move on. Let's talk about some-- it's kind of cool. I'm really excited about this and we sort of previewed it before the show. But you know, a lot of musicians are complaining these days about they're getting jacked by digital media, right. They're getting paid 0.0004 or whatever percent on each Spotify click. And they're not very happy with the way digital music is going understandably. -Sure. -Just ask freakin' Guttenberg. He hates it. -Yeah, he hates Spotify. And that's the whole separate discussion. But you know there are some artists that are sort of taken the digital age kinda seriously and doing cool stuff with it. And one of those artists surprisingly is Bob Dylan. -Do you think it was Bob Dylan's idea? -No, it's totally not Bob Dylan's idea. -I wanna put that up. -Right. -But the PR team behind Bob Bylan came up with a great idea and we're coming up on the 50th anniversary of the song like a Rolling Stone that came up in 1965. -Oh my god. -And to celebrate, Bob Dylan came out with a complete album Box Set Collection. And to sort of advertise that as a commercial, they came out with a new video for that song. And the video for the song is really cool, which is interactive video that basically lets you sleep through what looks to be various television channels and like a normal afternoon broadcast, right? -Okay. -So, you'll see the price is right up on here, Pawn Stars and all that stuff. And you can actually flip through the television channels. But you'll see we'll play this right after I describe it, but you can flip through those television channels and the song is playing at the same time. And you'll see that the people inside the television set are actually lip-synching with the song. -That is very neat. -It's very cool. It's super interactive and you'll see a lot of-- a lot of television stars that you're-- -Our buddy Maron is in it. -Yeah, Marc Maron is in it. Drew Carey for the Price is Right. ESPN is on it. So, let's just check it out and we'll play a couple of minutes of them maybe. -On the 12th day-- -So, let's start off with-- the channels flip through. -Right. -And then a song chart. -This looks like a real housewife. Yeah, there it is. -That is so cool. -Once upon a time you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime in your prime. -You can actually change channels too if you can't stay on one the entire time. -So, okay, change the channel. -Uh huh. So, this is a movie. -Can you find-- go find and try to find Maron. -That is so neat, man. -Yeah. -It's all fluid too. So, it never interrupts the song when you change the channel. -The best part is like this was probably so easy to film. -Yeah. -Right. -'Cause you just do everyone does the whole song. -This channel is my favorite 122 shows with Danny Brown. -Uh huh. Doing Bob Dylan like Rolling Stone. -Yeah. -that is sick. -That's a lesson. -He's just eaten like someone's left over. Is it looks like? -And then you can also go to VH1 and find the original video for it. -Very cool. -It's so cool, man. -Wow. It is one of the most clever projects that I've ever seen. -Yeah. -Oh wow, that's smart. -Yeah. Go check it out, Rolling 2 and the Show Notes even though Cartoons. -Uh huh. -So, freakin awesome. -Yeah, I wish more artists did stuff-- -Where were you on that idea dude? -I know. For what? Our hit song? -Our hit song that we don't have. -Yeah. -Yet. Come on. -This is cool. -Very cool. -Yeah. So, we'll post a link to it. Go to Cnet.com/the404 and you can watch the whole thing yourself. -All right. What else we got? We spent a lot of time on Xbox One. -We did. -We only have about 10 minutes or so. -Okay. All right, so let's talk about an article that's on CNET. This is really cool. CNET's Jessica Dolcourt, right. She's a reporter for news.com. She's taking a stand against smartphone thieves. Ariel, did you notice about San Francisco? -What's that? -Apparently, the SFPD says that 50 percent of all the thieves reported in San Francisco has to do in one way or another with smartphones. -Oh, really? -Yeah. -50 percent of all-- -But that's-- actually kind of comforting. -Not home invasion-- -Yeah. -Not pick pocketing. In general, smartphone thieves specifically. -But I'm okay with that. -Yeah. -Why? -Well, because I don't wanted to be like only 10 percent-- -Major crime. -and then 90 percent be like home invasion. -Right. Or like murder. Yeah. -Yeah. -I mean, it's cool. Fine. -[unk] all crimes is homicide. -Take my phone. Like if someone comes up to me and he's like, "Yo, give me your phone." I'd be like, here. Goodbye. -Yeah. -Goodbye. Good for you. -Right. -It's been useless, right? -Yeah, definitely. I mean-- Or if they had like a gun, I wouldn't just give it to anybody who said that-- -Can I have your phone? -It wouldn't have to be in a more aggressive delivery than that too. -I've imagined the percentage going up a lot-- -And they don't have to be a lot bigger than me. -Yeah. -Like a lot bigger. -Have you guys ever been in a sketchy situation where you kinda felt like maybe you should employ your phone out or something like that? -Oh, everybody I walk to work. -Nah. -You're conscious of it? -No way, man. I don't know. -Yeah. -New York is not like that anymore. -Yes. Not. You know-- -You don't think so? -I keep my money on them on the outside of my pocket. -Right. Yeah. -Whenever I get out of an ATM, I just wrap with rubber bands around the kids and I'm just like, "I'm rich." -Yeah. -Ron Burgundy style. So everybody looks up and see how much money I have. That's exactly what I do step by step. -Yeah. -Well, it is a big problem to the point where cops in San Francisco have actually called Smartphone Theft Apple picking. -Oh my god. -Get it? -Apple picking. Good one SFPD. -I didn't think a police department would make me eye roll. -Yeah. Stick to your job. -Stick to your job. -But yeah, this is-- this is a great article. Let me pull it up here while we talk about it, but you know, hopefully, you'll never in a situation where you do have to hand over your phone. And Jessica actually lays out a couple tips-- couple pro-tips on how to prevent that from happening in the first place. -Have you-- I've never lost my phone by the way. -Yeah. Now that we both said this, we're [unk] today. -No. 'Cause we said it before. -But I've also never lost my phone before. -It's right around there somewhere. It's fine. -Yeah. I've lost my wallet plenty of times. -Yes. -You know who loses their phone with it? -You said-- -Well, are you surprise? -No. -The reason isn't anything sexes at all, it's simply because a lot of women don't have deep pockets and they don't care with their phone all the time 'cause a lot of-- All right. Of course. -A lot of women carry bags around where-- or like a clutch or something like that where they put their phone in. -Sure. -And a lot of times they sit that bag is not attached to their body like men jeans' pocket. -It's just a gender cultural thing. -100 percent. -We, you know, men don't carry purses. -Yeah. -Most of us. -That and women are way more forgetful than men. -No. I thought you're going to say-- -Your face is just like, woo! -Like I just see like-- God, so we didn't hear enough about like, you know, this is kind of crap lately. -I'm totally joking. -Obviously, yeah. I was getting scared that you're gonna be like, "You know, because they're just stupid." -They're not as smart as men. It's science. -It's science. But no, like my wife has-- she carries-- She's got 19 different bags. -Yeah. -One for each day of the week, it seems like. -Yeah. -And the phone just like hops in and out to each one. -Exactly. Yeah. -Well, I got two pairs of jeans. -Yeah. -Right. -The phone always connects to your body. -I got eight pockets that could be in and that's it. -Yeah. You're like robocop with a phone in your pocket. -That's it. That's it. Do we properly escape out that joke? -Yeah. -No. -I think we get-- -We're like-- I was like, "No, just continue to apologize." -But it's okay 'cause they're only like two females watch the show anyway so hopefully-- -Oh, that's not true. It's at least 10 or 11. -Yeah. -Have your wife ever lost her phone? -Oh, all the time. Oh, it gets so annoying. -That's my point. -Yeah, I got to put a leash on that most likely. -On your wife? -Oh no. -On the phone. -Oh no. -On the phone. Yeah. -We love women. Come on. -Yeah. Yeah. -Geez. All right. Well, anyway, so Jessica Dolcourt, she has a lot of tips and some of them are kind of funny, but a lot of them are good points. So, let's go through of them-- some of them. -Okay. -So, the first one she recommends-- thing she recommends to do is get a case. -Not only to protect the phone, you know, if you wanna sell it later, but also because a lot of times, you know, you wanna mask the fact that you're not holding an iPhone, right? -Well, what else are you holding and swiping? -Yeah. I know. That's understandable too. -That's number one. Get a case. -It's like the whole concept of maybe don't use the iPhone headphones, you know, like those Apple white headphones-- -That's truly different. -Right. -because that pretty much advertises. Whether you have a phone in your hand or not-- -Right. -that you've probably got an expensive thing in your pocket. -Yeah. -If you're-- Yeah, I agree. -It's like something-- -I love Jessica, but this is crazy. -Yeah. -They probably gonna know. -This is-- That's like saying, 'hold on to it tighter.' -Yeah, which actually is a tip number two. -It's number two. -I don't wanna-- I don't wanna make fun of Jessica. -No, we're kidding. -But number two is what she calls the claw. -The claw. -Like sort of a tip on how to hold your phone because apparently, you know, a lot of times when your phone does get stolen, the thieves wait, you know, they'll sit-- say you're like on a bus-- -Yeah. -on the subway. You know, a lot of times those thieves will wait until the door is about to close and they'll snatch your phone and go out the door as it closes on you and so you got to be aware of this so she-- what she recommends is holding your phone in a manner she calls the claw. So, I'm gonna try to say this without laughing and I love that-- -Yeah. -That's a good too, but we gonna give her some shit for this, right? So, she says grip the phone tightly in your hand fanning out your fingers-- Jeff, I'm glad you're doing this too. No, no. You're not doing it right. Look at the picture. -Okay. -Fanning your fingers out as much as possible that you-- so that you can form a protective cage around the phone. -We've gotten this. -Or better yet, weave those fingers with both hands around the device so that they're touching, right? -So, she's doing this to the phone. -Yeah. So, grip your phone with both hands. -This is really easy to use. -No, there's one hand-- -It's just virtually easy to talk with. -Yeah. _I mean you can take this one step fairly. You might as well attach some kind of lanyard to it and attach that to your neck so that if someone does try to steal it, they'll break your neck. -Right. I love Jessica to death. But I'm just not sure number one and number two-- -Right. -are necessarily keeping my cellphone in my possession during times of pilfering. -Right. But you could agree that it's a lot here. Hold the phone with a claw. -It's a lot harder to pull a phone as [unk] like this. -Sure. Then it is if they were just, you know, holding it say with two fingers-- -It's also really tough to detach from the phone. You almost have to reap your hands apart. -Right. -This is crazy. -You got to keep that in mind. -This is crazy. -And this is only when you're in public. This is obviously not when you're at home or in dinner or whatever. -Okay. So, what else-- what other [unk] because if that's one and two, I can only imagine number three is don't have a cellphone. -Well, okay, that's obviously the number one way, do not get-- It's like the abstinence. -Right. -But, you know, she also makes a good point as an addendum to tip number two is that don't be completely absorbed in your advice-- in your device while you're using it in public, which is a great point, right. Like beware of your surroundings. -Of course. -Don't be completely focused on that game of whatever. -Or you'll fall down a manhole. -Yeah. So, if you're like playing Candy Crush or doing Instagram-- -But I think there's a time and a place where you-- -you know, glance up every once in a while to make sure that there aren't shady characters around you. -But there's a time and a place where you can be like if you're on a flight or train or-- -Sure. -you know like, I think that's okay. -Yeah. Yeah. You must close your phone on a flight. You could pretty much control that situation. -I think so. -Yeah. -I feel like a lot of times people assume that someone has stolen their phone. But in fact, they've just lost their phone. -Yeah. -Right? I feel like 80 percent of the time that's probably what happened. -I have in a moment to add here. -Okay. -Number one, it should be call it like call your phone. -Yeah. It's in your backpack. -It's in your backpack. -Yeah. Okay, so this is tip number three and I kinda get the feeling you're not gonna like this one either. Adapt a paranoid posture. So-- -What does that mean? -Yeah. So this is sort of taking the claw technique one step further. She's saying that if, you know, you're at ease in your surroundings, it can help to sort of act cautious as well. So, the paranoid posture she's talking about is sort of sitting still-- I don't need to demonstrate this for you. -Okay. -Hunch your shoulders over-- -No. -and turn your elbows-- -No! -That's the quote from the-- This is what she's saying. -Wow. -Apparently, it's worked for her, so I'm not-- I'm not denouncing it. -She was able to tear off a possible thief by just doing-- -Hunch your shoulders, turn your elbows out, lower your phone to your lap and perhaps position it behind a cross leg. -Shut up. -Yeah, that's what she's saying so that, you know, like if someone is washing a crowd of people instead of trying to pick out the victim, I think-- -Right. Right. -Maybe the guy-- -Yeah. -That's the guy who steal the phone from you. -I know. -They probably afraid of approaching 'cause you just look scary. -Yeah. -You just look really weird, though. -And breathe really hard too. -Is that guy you're gonna watch? -Yeah. And don't blink while you're using the phone. -Adapt a paranoid posture. To me, that's like find a bank vault going and enclose it, then use your phone. -Only use the phone in the bathroom while you're secluded. -Oh my Jesus. -Well, okay. I mean, you got obviously take some of these things and just try yourself adapt your own methods. -Do you know that this is-- the real advice that she says? If you're walking while listening to a podcast or music, keep the volume low enough so you can hear other people approach, right? -That's a good idea. -That's a great idea. -That's a good advice. -Especially walking around in a big city, there's a lot of stuff that could hurt you. -You must be terrified just walking around New York. Did you ever hear people jogging from behind you? -Yeah. -It's scary. Yeah. -Yes. -Before you turn around, you're assuming that someone is running up behind you to murder you in the back. -I hate joggers' men. -I hate joggers. -Yeah, it's pretty bad. -They think like because they're jogging, they don't have to avoid people on the sidewalk. -Yeah. -They think like they're somehow entitled to like make a beeline for wherever they're going. -Right. -Okay. -Like [unk] turn around and they're like, "Hey, I'm running here." You're like, "I'm walking here you dick and you're behind me." -Yeah. -Yeah. -Right? -I also feel-- -No, I agree with you. I mean this is sort of a tension, so-- But-- -Of course. -I feel like I would definitely be eager to congratulate runners more on their accomplishments everyday, if they weren't so busy congratulating themselves, right? They said, "We've done it." -I feel like-- most blatant about bragging how many miles they run on Facebook, on Twitter. -I know. On the back of their windshield: I get it. You run a lot. Awesome. -Yeah. Separate issue. We can do it that later, but-- -That's probably also because of all the wearable tech that lets you just advertise it to everyone and brag home. -Yeah. Right. -And it's probably because if we don't do it and we're totally out shape too. -No. I don't think you are. I mean we both are active. -Yeah. -I play ice hockey. -Yes, you do. -What are you doing? -Just looking at my body. -Okay. -I was like-- I was like, "I thought you're gonna take over closely to show me." -Yeah. Okay. Tip number four. -Yeah. -The tips are getting better. I think you're really gonna like this one. Tip number four. Embrace the art of misdirection. So, she says hold the bright light in your hand and the other hand that you're not using the phone with. And then kind of do something like-- -No, you're kidding. -Have a ball of yarn now and distract them by waving that around while you're messing around with your phone. -The way this listening go and I kinda bought that for a second. -Okay. So, she's saying that a lot of times thieves will come up to you and actually ask, "Hey, what kind of phone is that?" And when you're busy thinking about it, you're looking down and they'll grab it. And in that sort, they'll make sure-- -Savages. -that the phone that they're stealing is a good one because apparently these thieves are well researched online. -Right. -So, she is saying that when someone does strike up a conversation with you who is presumably friendly, maybe don't say, "Oh, this is the HTC One." -Just say it's a piece of crap. -Yeah. Or don't say like, "This is the model X. It's just came out. It's great, you know." Just say, "Oh, this the last year's model and it's broken" or something like that. -Right. Or be like, "I hate this phone. Here you want it?" -Right. Right. -And speaking of misdirection, I would add my own tip in here and say, "If anyone never comes up to you advertising a magic trick, they're probably trying to pick your pockets, right?" -A stranger. -Yeah. -Yes. -So, don't fall for any magicians too. -Never-- Never get-- I mean maybe just because we're talking like New York centric, but never give anyone your undivided attention on the street. -Right, exactly. Yeah. -A waiter taken our order? Yeah. Fine. -Yeah. -Some dress as Elmo. -Yeah. Don't talk to them. -Right. -Or if like the magician is pointing out certain things in your body or distracting you -Right. -a lot, probably just get out of that situation. -Just hold on to your wallet when that's happening. All right, lastly-- last tip, make your phone hard to get even for you. So, she's saying even though, you know, the tendency is you just slip into your pocket or, you know, even worse to your short pocket, which I just didn't do. -Right. That I'll never understand. -That is so susceptible. -That you bend down and it's stolen. -Yeah. That's bad. Or you bend over the toilet. -Yeah. She's saying that, you know, maybe putting in somewhere a little bit more discrete somewhere like your brief case or your purse, which kinda goes back to what we said before, maybe don't put it in the purse if you're forgetful about that. But you know, keep it inside the interior pocket of your jacket or some place that actually has a zipper that you can close-- -Right. -etc., things like that to make it harder for this to get to. -Or you know, you could go to the chain wallet route. -Right. -You just sort of chain it to your belts. -That's well said. Toggle it to yourself. -You know, I used to rock that. -Yeah. -Why not. -They should make that, chain wallet for your phone. -I'm into it. I wear on to something. -Where do you keep your phone, Ariel? -I just keep it on my pocket. -Yeah. -Yeah. But I've actually lost my phone before. -Oh you have? -Yeah. -In a cab. I left it in a cab. -See that's not-- -I had-- -Yeah. That's not getting stolen, though. -Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah. -That's, you know, our own forgetfulness. -But did it get stolen? -No, no. I did find my iPhone and then the cab guy brought it back to me. -Oh, that's amazing. So, he did he charge the phone affair? -No. But I gave him some money. It's kind a-- -Yeah. No, that's really nice of you. -That's good. Yeah, so at the end of this feature, which everyone should read, you know, she's sort of talks about how can [unk] cellphone editor, right? He actually has a separate feature on what to do into the off chance that your phone does get stolen. -Okay. -In which you could do to prevent that from happening before on your phone. Things like installing find my iPhone, which apparently works pretty well. -Yeah, they work pretty. -Yeah, it does. -Did you use the GPS feature to actually track it? -Yeah. Yeah. You could see where it's going like we're in Manhattan. -Yeah. -Give some pretty good advice and I wouldn't have thought about this myself. But he was saying that before you wipe the phone because you can apparently do that remotely, before you do that though, you should send a message to the phone. -Yeah. That's what-- -Then, you can offer a reward or something like that. Because once you wipe it, if you don't have your phone previously updated-- -Yeah. -or backed up, so you know, if you have photos or you know to do list items, memos, and stuff on there, maybe send a bounty before you wipe it. -Yeah, totally. -Yeah, just like getting a ransom like pay the ransom. -Yeah. -Yeah. I mean I would probably pay up to the subsidized price that it would cost me to buy a new phone, right? So could maybe get it back. -Or like if the guy's like haggling with me, that's when I bring a cop with me to meet up. -Right. -Yeah, you should know how to do that-- -Well, these guys freakin jogging me-- -Yeah. -you know, right? -Yeah. -Is that what you do? -Yeah. -Or at least your friend who's big, right? -Yeah. Right. -The scary thing is like, well, it's not a concern for me and Ariel, but for people that have Android phones, you can't-- you can't wipe out micro SD card remotely, which is something that can't points out to. So maybe don't put really sensitive-- on it. -Right of course. Yeah, don't put your-- you know, your tax income-- income tax report on their. -Yeah. All right, we'll that's it. -All right. -Go and check out Jessica Dolcourt's feature 'cause it's a useful information. -It is-- -Uh huh. -if not entertaining. -Yeah. -No. But seriously, we love Jes and that's a very entertaining article for sure. -It's good enough. -All right, I think that's it. We went as long as I think we're gonna go today. We left a few stories in the hopper, but we'll to that tomorrow, because these are good and there we can talk about anytime, right? -Uh huh. -Excellent. 866-404-CNET, that's the phone number. Reach out to us and send your love or you can email us the404@cnet.come. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, what else? -We can still play voice mails on the show. -Yeah, we can. -And video voice mails especially. -We can. Yeah, there's a few like technical hiccups like I don't know if we can hear the voice mails if we play them, but we can do it. -Yeah. -So, look, we're very happy to be in here. We're happy with where everything looks and sounds. So, give us some feedback. We're so thrilled to be back into your RSS inbox or wherever you digest the video portion of the program. That's gonna do it for us. We're back here with video tomorrow. Until then, I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nunez. -This has been The 404 Show, high tech, low brow. We'll see you guys tomorrow or later.