Ep. 1336: Where we have wizards in our watches

-Hey. What's up, everybody? It's Thursday, September 5th, 2013. Thanks for turning on The 404 Show on Cnet.com. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -And I'm Bridget Carey. -Yeah. What's up, you guys? -What's up? -What's up? -We're back again. I didn't think you'd be back in the hot seat per-- in such a short period of time but you were helping us out while Ariel was away-- -Uh-hmm. -during his honeymoon, -Yeah. -and his wedding. -Uh-hmm. -And now you're back again to help us out now that Jeff isn't here, which is kind of really-- -I just can't resist. I just have to come back. -Yeah. -It's irresistible. -It seems like the people love you too. They love you. We're glad you did come back. -We got incredible amount of e-mails, right? -Uh-hmm. -After you and Richard were on for that week. -We had a lot of fun that week. -People love you. -We had a lot of fun. -Yeah, it was great. So, you're back again, thanks for coming. -Uh-hmm. -Ariel, thanks for helping out in the board as usually. -But of course. -Whoa. -I'm still in Jamaica, man. -Yeah. Actually, I couldn't tell if that was like a Renaissance Faire reference-- -Right. -to transition into that story or if you were talking in a Jamaican accent. -Yeah, I do weird accents that make no sense. -You were doing both in the pre-shows, -Yeah. -so might as well. Yeah. -It's a combination. -Lord, have mercy. -Yeah. -Doing that for some reason. -Ya man. -So, you were saying that people in Jamaica, you know, they actually encourage tourist to say 'ya man'? -Yeah, they are. Everybody says 'ya man' and -Yeah. -by the end of the time you're there, you're just gonna be saying 'ya man' all the time. And everything you-- every answer is 'ya man.' -So, is everyone, like as chill as I expect them to be in Caribbean? -Oh, super chill and they tell you to just get rid of all your worries, like don't think about anything, just relax. -Yeah. -It's so nice, man. -That's amazing. -So nice. -Did you actually have a chance to catch some good reggae? -No, not really. Like we were gonna-- we missed the Bob Marley tour, which I was really looking forward to. -Oh, yeah. -So, yeah, we missed that and that's when really I was gonna absorb all the reggae but yeah. -Right. There's a Bob Marley Museum there too, right? -Yeah there is, there is, but they were saying like, if you want the authentic tour-- because the museum is in Kingston. -Yeah. -And it's kinda super far from us but if you want the authentic tour, like to take this specific one where they show you where he grew up and where his family still lives, stuff like that. -Right. Yeah, there's not enough Caribbean food in Manhattan. -No. -There's this one place called Lilly's in the Lily's in the West Village that's really good. It's right next to like a record store that only sells reggae music. -Yeah, yeah. I know that place. -You've been there before? -Yeah. Uh-hmm. -Yeah, that place is so good. -Yeah, super. -But it's kind of expensive and-- -Uh-hmm. -I think you gotta go all the way up town or to Brooklyn if you wanna get the good Caribbean food. -Right, right. -Manhattan is everything that Jamaica is not. -Yeah. -Yeah, sure. -So, it probably pushes people away from on. -Yeah. -Yeah, yeah. -Business is here. -Yeah, for sure. -Yeah but their food is so good, though. -It's so good. -Well, speaking of Renaissance Faires, Bridget, you had a pretty awesome Labor Day weekend. -I had a magical Labor Day weekend. -Yes. It's magical. Tell us about it, fair witch. -Okay. Well, I went to New York Renaissance Festival. -Yeah. -It's in Upstate New York. So, I don't have a car, so I had to take a bus to get there. -Uh-huh. -It's about an hour away. And you know, if you ever have been to one before, this one is about 30 times more intense. For example, when I was waiting for the bus, I see these women fully decked out in like giant dresses, where their butts are big and have fans. -Oh, right, corset, yeah right. -Yeah, corsets and fans. Their boobs are out. -Nice. -And I'm like, oh-- like, oh, so, the bus is this one, right? And they're like from Texas and the people fly in from other states to go to this one. -No way. -So, it was definitely worth the money because of all the detail people put in. Now, to preface, I really wasn't someone who's ever been into Renaissance Faires. -Uh-huh. -In Florida they were kinda, you know, like at least once in my hometown there was just kinda like a glorified, I guess, place to shop for trinkets, you know, -Right. -and drink beer and-- but it wasn't-- -People watch you. -Yeah, here, they just build entire like towns of like shops and people get so into it. -Uh-hmm. -It's just an experience that's really a lot of fun to get kinda caught up in. And then of course, there are different themes depending on your weekend. I mean, there's any theme you want. You could do whatever you want. -Uh-hmm. -But there's more people, they kind of encourage like, Saturday when I went was Pirate Day. -Okay. -Of course, pirates, you know, -That's a loose-- -are a little loose, right. -Yeah, not really-- -But it gets people in, you know. -Right. -And there was also a Steampunk Day on Sunday. -Oh, that's cool. -So, they called it Time Traveler Weekend and Barbarian Monday, you know, I didn't go then but you know-- -Yeah. Barbarian, nice. -I know. So, yeah, for those Conan lovers-- and there's-- and people get married at this place. -Yeah. -I mean, it's gorgeous and so it's a lot of fun to kinda get caught up in the jousting and -Yeah. -the mead and all of the silliness and the vendors come out and they yell at you and they want you to buy their pickles that are in a wheel barrel. -Oh, that's amazing. -And you know, it's a fun place to just kind of, you know, let your nerdiness go. -Uh-hmm. -A lot of men in tights I'm assuming, that green tights walking around. -Oh, yeah, a lot of men in tights. -Yeah. Waves and stuff. -Most guys, though, like it's not so bad, you know, with the guy outfits. You know, you wear like a canvass loose shirt and a hot and suddenly you're like pirate, -Right. -and it works. -Right, right. It's kinda more flexible but some of the ladies who went all out, I applaud thee because what they do to their bottoms. -Yeah. -You got an extension of pretty tight. -That cannot be comfortable but -Yeah. -I admired what they were able to do. -Right. -Right. -And I'm sure the outcome, they're pretty good too. -Right. -Right, right. -Why weren't we there? -Yeah, I know. -We're doing this weekend. -Next year. -You actually dressed up. Speaking of costumes-- -I got in the spirits, -Yeah. -so to speak they had a little booth where you could buy ears. -Oh. -So, I wanted to get into that and yeah, I think we could pull it up. -Here you are. -Yeah, yeah. -You said it's a photo of you and your Elven Ears. They actually match your skin tone pretty well. -Yeah. -I'm surprised. -Yeah, they put makeup on them. They make it match. -That was cool. -And I wanted them because they looked more like Spock ears too. So, I can repurpose them. -Yeah. -Oh, perfect. -You're such a dork. -Geeking ahead. -I'm future proofing these ears. And you know what, it's like Hollywood makeup. It's like, just that kind of robbery thing where you see people how fake noses. -Right. -It's like you put a little glue on your ear and you kinda just paste it on and it blends right into your ear. -Oh, yeah. Yeah, looks really convincing. Although, you're sort of breaking the fourth wall here because it looks like your fiance wasn't as eager to dress up as you. -Are you sure? No, he was. Look at his shirt. -Okay. Yeah, yeah. -Oh, yeah. I see. I see. -Yeah. -He's got like the pirate style-- -The old school shirt. -Yeah, it's too nice of a shirt. -Yeah. -It looks stylish. -Yeah. I know. It looks like something they'd sell at H&M. -Yeah, totally. That's nice. -Yeah. It's-- like I don't think I'd invest in-- because it is a big investment to get these outfits that are so grandy. -Yeah, right. -But you're there and you're like that's a pretty awesome sword, like, and you start talking to yourself like, "Could I have this in the house?" -Yeah, pretty. -Yeah, yeah. -And then you're like, "Oh, you know, that giant corset. How can I get use out of this?" -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -So, you're trying to make like practical uses out of like giant shields and staffs. I could use as staff. Yeah. I could walk around New York with a magical staff. Why not? You know, so, maybe every year out a little bit. We'll see. -Yeah. Nice. -Were people talking in the whole Renaissance language thing? Because that always cracks me up. I went to the one in the Cloisters like two summers ago. -Uh-hmm. -And someone just came up to me and he was like, "My Lord. Do you want, like me thinks you should eat a turkey leg" or something like that, it was really weird. Are there people like that there? -Some of them like the [unk] on these actors-- -It's incredible, yeah. -this is top notched. -It's their own language. -Yeah because like if you come back, like, "No it's okay, I don't want any." "Oh, really?" -Yeah. -"You don't want to buy my wigs." Yeah. -Yeah. -And they'll keep yelling at you. I actually felt like I was in the video game Fable. -Oh, right. -Because I keep walking around here, the same kinds of things being repeated. It was kind of interesting. But yeah, and then I went back to reality. So, it's good little-- like talk about getting away. I'll get away and also get away from this time. There you go. -Tell us what you're doing in this photo that you sent over? Because you sent over a bunch of them. -Oh. -And it looks like you're just going ape shit with this axe against the wall. -They have a lot-- -It's kind of scary actually. -They have a lot of activities. -You got a shining moment in here. -They have a lot of activities like you can have a bow and arrow which I did last year and this year, we saw the axe throwing wall. -Yeah. -So, like a carnival type game. Put money and you get a bunch of access and I did it with my fiance, Jose. -Uh-huh. -Who hit the bullseye there. -Nice. -And then when I had my try, they just went to the floor. It wasn't my forte. -Yeah. There are a lot of them on the floor here. -But it looks pretty epic. -Yeah, it looks like you hit the bullseye. -Yeah. But you know, go to the next picture I sent you because there's actually a detail from the guy who's standing next to us. Zoom in here. Someone threw an axe into his just thrown axe. -Oh. That is so cool. -It is like one of those like Robin Hood arrow into arrow moments. -Yeah. Right, right. -It was deliberate. I meant to do that. -Yeah, yeah. -It was-- yeah. So, a lot of epicness happens at Ren Faire. -It's cool. -That's so cool. When I went they had kids playing live version of Quidditch, that game from Harry Potter. -Oh. -Oh, really? Yeah. -The books and the movie. -Which is such a strange. That is not-- -Which is so not, yeah, like wizards I guess belong in a Renaissance Faire but Harry Potter it's like it's clearly different universe. -Yeah. -It's a different time too. -Yeah and in their game, at least from what I saw in the movie, Quidditch is supposed to be played flying, right? -Right. -They're flying on broomsticks. -Uh-hmm. -And so what these guys do when they play it live in real life, they just put broomsticks under their legs -I've seen it. -and just kinda waddle around. -Yeah. -It's really embarrassing. -Yeah. -Like when you're a kid playing horsey. -Yeah. -Yeah exactly, it's like that. And then there's supposed to be this golden ball that has wings and it flies around and you're supposed to catch it. -Yeah. -Uh-hmm. The snitch. -In real life-- yeah a snitch, exactly. -Right. -I'm sorry I didn't know the vernacular. In real life, you just get a guy in a yellow t-shirt with a sock hanging out at the back of his pants. -Oh, wow. -And that is the snitch. -Nice. -And he just kinda runs around like aimlessly, you know, just trying to get-- not to get caught. It's really strange. -That's a real Renaissance Faire. -Yeah, yeah. -Yeah. You gotta have sword fights and jousting-- -Yeah. -and wenches yelling at you. -Yeah. -Yeah. -This is what happens when you get rid of bullying in schools, right? Kids are just allowed to do whatever they want. -Yes. -I don't know. So, did you see any like LARPing or anything like that? -What's LARPing? -What's LARPing? -What? -Bridget. A Ren Faire attendee-- LARPing is live action role play. -Oh. -Have you seen where they have like foam weapons and like hit each other and stuff? -Okay. Yes, I saw-- -They throw darts, lightning bolt, lightning bolt, that kind of thing. -I saw it in a controlled like acting environment. -Right. -Because they had a stage like sword fight. It was kinda like, have you ever been to-- -Medieval times. -Yeah, medieval times. -Amazing. -It's kinda like that. -Yes. -Where they have like-- they're actually clinging metal but then like it's kind of choreographed, you know. -Right. -So, I saw it in that regard. -That's cool. -But everyone does a little role play. When you start buying little things and you have little dragons on your shoulder and you kinda get into it. -Yeah, yeah. I guess the whole thing is a live action role play. -Yeah, the whole experience. -I'm gonna go next to you just as a ninja. -Would that work? And you're gonna throw everybody off? Like, will this work? -Like, well-- -A time traveling ninja. -Yeah. -How did I get here? -[unk] Japan, it's weird. Yeah, when I went there was a guy in a Shrek costume which is sort of like a very loose adaptation of Rennaisance. -A little bit. Yeah. -Fairy tales but yeah, that was kind of interesting. People walking around like in full armor I'm assuming at the Renaissance Faire. -No. Well, it was a hot day so, I didn't see full armor. -Yeah. -But I definitely saw things that are extremely extravagant, -Yeah. -in terms of like thick costumes, you know. Like simply, you're like, "Oh. I'm not gonna get too close to you because you'll probably smell but that's awesome." -Yeah. -Yeah, what was the bathroom situation like? I'm sure it was awful. -Oh, you know, they have one area where I had-- oh, actually I have it on my phone I should have sent it to you. The sign that is like in a style Leonardo da Vinci painted like a sketch. It's like the amazing flush privies, new invention. And it was just a trailer with some toilets-- but yeah, and everywhere else they were not flush privies. They had-- privies meant for the potties, yeah. -Oh, right. -But the flush privies, that was the-- -Hey, that's a big innovation. -That was the high end-- yeah. -Yeah. -That's royalty. -It's much better than a hole in the ground. -Yeah. -Just probably what they are used to. Well, it sounds like you had fun. In fact it's still going on right now, isn't it? -Yeah, yeah. I think maybe two or three more weekends. I know it's said that the second weekend was romance weekend. -Oh. -Kinda like that Romeo and Juliet style. -Yeah. -I'll take the Pirates and Barbarians next. -Yeah. Yeah, I like that. -And axe throwing. -Well, thanks for that report, Bridget. I wish I had gone. Maybe I'll still go this weekend. -Yeah. Oh, yeah, you gotta check it out. -I have a long weekend. -It's a fun thing to do. -Yeah. Well, let's move on to the big tech news of the week and I know you're itching to talk about this because this is your favorite topic. -Oh. -But everybody at CNET this week has been super busy because IFA or IFA, they've been calling it, -Uh-hmm. -is going on this week. And it's basically the biggest European tech show in the world and it's basically the European version of CES that we have here in the states, right? -Uh-hmm. -And so yesterday, Samsung had their big press conference and we kind of already knew this was going out but Samsung just announced it. It's the Galaxy Gear Smartwatch. -Uh-hmm. -It's-- -It's kind of something that we've been expecting for a little while especially because there had been so many kick starter accounts started for smartwatch like the Pebble for example. -Yeah. It's a topic that started getting a Resurgence in-- I mean, it's not a new concept. -No. -But people have been waiting for something that actually is useful -Uh-hmm. -and works well with both fashion and battery life and has more apps. -Right. -You know, even Sony last year had something but it kinda just fell off the radar because-- -Yeah. -there weren't many apps and people went, "Oh, that's nice digital watch" you know. -They had those SPOT watches too, -Yeah. -which were basically the same things. They had apps built into them to check the weather and your messages. -This one is kinda cool. So, this one can pick up notifications from your phone if you have a Samsung Galaxy device. -Uh-hmm. -Which is one of the downsides that a lot of people are complaining about, right? -Yeah. -You can also use it with like Samsung S1 through 4, -It's basically a Samsung accessory. -Note. -Right. -Yeah. You can't even use it without their Android devices. So, if you have whatever, you know, like another Android device you can pair it. -Well, I'm sure Apple might do the same thing if they do one where you have to have an Apple device first, -Right. -then maybe later it will work with other ones. But yeah, the only thing that is probably very unique that people didn't expect, -Uh-hmm. -is having a camera on the side not on top of the screen. -Right. So, we're looking at it right here. -So, you can't do those-- you can't video chat like you could in like Inspector Gadget Penny, you know, where she like [unk]. -Uh-hmm. -You know, you can actually video chat from it but you can like I guess be a spy and like do weird angle shots of like where you're at. -Yeah. -It's not exactly a camera that is anything for real, I guess moments, -Uh-hmm. -except for maybe catching something in interesting angle. -Yeah. I had mentioned it'd be really awkward to sort of point the bottom of your wrist at something -Uh-hmm. -to take a photo of it. Or-- -Or like twisting your band. -Or twisting it. Yeah and imagine if you're taking a photo of something that's above you or down below, you know that's gonna be really awkward to have to look at the screen and trying to position it at the same time. -Exactly. I think that that was an interesting feature but not gonna be a very useful one. -No. I-- yeah, I think I'm totally in agreement with you specially because it's only 1.9 megapixels, right? -So, yeah. It's not really meant to be like your camera phone replacement, yeah. -It's totally not because say, you know, you still have to have your phone in close proximity because it's a Bluetooth connection, so you don't have a cellular connection in the watch itself. I think that's the biggest hindrance. -Yes. -So, you know if you have for example like the Samsung Galaxy S4, you've got a you've got a 13-megapixel camera in your pocket less than a foot away from your wrist. -Right. When you want to count-- exactly, when you want to count, you're gonna do that, but if you're trying to take some quick pictures of I don't know, something funny going on, -Yeah. -or like check out this crazy guy on the subway where you wanna be discreet, you know. -Right, that's super creepy. -Yeah, well, it can record audio, so it's already an easier version to be a spy. We already could do so many things with a phone but it was harder to be discreet when you're kind of trying to aim a phone. -Yeah. -Whereas here it's like pop out, I got you with my wrist, you know. -One thing that I think is kind of cool and hopefully it will prevent the creeps from taking those kinds of shots like on the subway and stuff, but I read that they will actually-- they made it so that you can disable the shutter sound when you take a picture using the watch. -Oh, I didn't read that, oh. -Yeah. So, it's sort of-- yeah, it's gonna automatically take a photo and have the sound at the same time. So, that's kinda cool. -Yeah. -I sort of like that but I'm sure someone will find a way to hack this, to make it super sketchy. Other things that it has is, it came out-- they came out with a bunch of different applications that are compatible with the over 70 right now for things like Path or Pocket, which is an app that I would like to use on iOS to read news. -Or Pinterest when I have-- -Pinterest, yeah. -have to share this outfit right now in the mall. -Yeah and you wanna look at it on a less than 2-inch screen. Doesn't make sense. -It's for probably quickly sharing something to Pinterest. It's not really for browsing Pinterest. -Right. -But most of those apps are for task related things, like I wanna set a calendar app, instantly check the weather just using your voice. -Right. -So, okay, now we're getting somewhere. Just talk to your watch and it just-- you don't have to really do much, okay, now we're getting to the more interesting, useful territory. -Right. And then you can make-- it's got microphones built into it so you could technically talk into your watch and use it as the speakerphone. -Uh-hmm. -But there's-- my problem with that is that there's no headphone jack because you can't play-- well, it can't play music. That's in my opinion. -It controls music. -It can control your music but you can't listen to music through it, so-- I still don't-- I just don't get the idea of a smartwatch. You still have to use your phone for majority of the applications you could use. -And that's the point. It's your accessory. -Yeah. -Like okay, I could see myself changing music from a watch because right now, I have to get my phone every time I skip. -Right. -Okay, you know. -Just get Bluetooth headphones, though, right? I mean if you have-- if you wanna go completely wireless, you'd have Bluetooth headphones with the controls built into it already. So, I don't know. I just don't see a use case for that. -This gives you just a little bit more to do with, than just listening to music I guess in that case. -Yeah. -It's gonna be $300 though. -Yeah. -That's really, you know-- -Talk about price. -Yeah. That's more than the phone people pay for. -Yeah. -So, I mean, if you think about contract, that is, you know. -Right. Out of contract you're gonna be spending over a thousand dollars to buy the set together, which seems ridiculous. -That's where you have that moment of, does it really help my life? -Right. -I don't know, you know, but people do like to, I guess, kinda show off and have a little fun with these things. -Well, let's call it for what it is. It's really a fashion accessory, right? -I do-- yeah. -I mean, if somebody gave you a phone that only had 1.2-megapixel camera, right, and it had a tiny 1.7-inch screen. -It's not a replacement for your phone, right. -Yeah, so then, I would never pay $300 for that. Especially the have to charge it every single night which is another problem-- -No-- yeah. -that a lot of people have with, that it's only-- the battery is only gonna last up to one day and that's depending on how much use you get out of it. So, if you're, you know, running a lot of apps or playing music or taking photos, it's not even gonna last to full day. -The winning smartwatch will have a very easy docking station that you could just throw it on at night when you're sleeping to-- -Oh, the docking-- so-- -No. I'm saying that will be the winning-- like I haven't seen a docking station for this thing. -Yeah. -But that will be a winner in this category, because exactly, these things only last a day. -Uh-hmm. -I don't charge my actual watch. I don't-- the battery goes bad a year and a half, you know. -Right. -Like it's not the thing you don't wanna worry about and it will cause you to not really wear it all the time if it's not charged. -Right. -It becomes useless. -Yeah, I actually read on the CNET review that it's gonna come with a specific dock, it's a proprietary charging dock for this that charges through micro USB. -Uh-hmm. -But you have to have the dock. You can't just take the plug and put it directly into the phones or to the watch. -I haven't seen this dock. Is it like-- -So, you have to bring the dock with you. If you forget it at home and you're traveling, you're not going to be using your watch, which is such a headslapper, right? Like why-- it doesn't make sense why Samsung would do something like that. -No me gusta. -Not good. -But I Have a feeling that, you know, these are the problems that we're gonna see in any smartwatch this year. -Yeah. -It's a lot of the same like, oh, cool, glad to see they're innovative. But oh, that price, oh that feature set, oh that battery. -Yeah. It does seem really redundant. I was reading Forbes and they had a review of it. I'm sorry, no, the CNN that's that said this quote and they said, "The smartwatch will be your remote control for your smartphone, and your smartphone will be your remote control for your life." -For your-- oh, I would say your television. -For your television, yeah. -Yeah. -Then your television would tell you what's going on in your life. It's ridiculous. It seems so cyclical and not necessary. -I have the perfect smartwatch application. -What's that? -Make this my wallet. -It's not a bad idea. -Because the whole point of the digital wallet on the smartphone didn't make sense because you have to pull out your wallet, you have to pull out your smartphone. -Right. -I can just swipe a card, I can-- getting your phone out doesn't save you time. But if I can go, "I just bought it." -Right. -That's interesting. -That's almost your ringtone sound, by the way. -A little off. -There's no argue with the fact that it looks beautiful, though. I mean, we're looking at photos from the CNET slide show that we took in person. -I'm glad they-- that they took time. -It's really gorgeous. -That white and gold one is probably the most, you know, attractive looking one. -Right. Yeah. So, it will come in different colors for the watch band and then, you can of course download watch faces virtually to put on it. It's a really nice watch. I heard that the strap itself isn't quite as stopple as the Pebble, so it just can't form around your wrist as comfortably but it looks good. I really like the beveled edges and it's kind of seamless looking. It definitely looks like a watch from the future. But do we really need it? I don't know. And I don't think I'm gonna be dropping 300 bucks for this. Not that I could because I don't have a Samsung phone anyway. -Well, I actually-- I'm interested to see now adjustable that band is too because-- -It's awfully big. -I got tiny wrists. -Yeah. -And I always have to cut the links off the watches I buy because I'm too small so-- -Right. -I mean, everyone is different. Is it going to be, you know, adjustable to be wider? I just want those things. -Yeah. -They'll turn people off if it's not. -I don't know. Maybe it's just me but I just don't want another thing to have to think about. You know, to me, this smartwatch is just another device I'm gonna have to turn off the audio for when I step into a movie theater. You know what I mean? Like, it's just gonna be one more thing that you're gonna have to be like, "Hey, can you like turn off that watch? Like, it's really distracting." -But think about it. You're on like a date and you're like, "Oh, really? Oh, oh tell me more." -Yeah. -Like, "Is that a camera?" "No, no." -Yeah. -Right. -It's very-- it's kind of a fun spy tool, I think, more than anything. -Yeah. -But-- or just quick documenting your life. -Right yeah. I think the frustrating thing for me is that, I just don't wanna have to charge one more thing, right? -Yeah. -Like all the USB ports are full right now. I have no more room on my like charging thing. It's just ridiculous. You have to charge your phone your glasses now, charge our phone, your MP3 player, your laptop, tablet-- -And-- -and now your watch. Come on. -And they don't go charged. -Yeah. It's ridiculous and you can't even use it as a watch if it loses charge. That's what I like about my watch, analog watches, right? It only does one thing. You don't have to think about it. -Oh, yeah. -That's the benefit for me. -It will be good if you could switch over, right? -Yeah. If it just became a regular watch. -When-- yeah, when it didn't have the battery it would just tell me the time. -Yeah. -What else is going on at IFA? I haven't had a chance. I know Sony had a big press conference and Samsung also announced a bunch of TVs. -Sony is crazy gadget that turned heads was a camera that clips on to smartphones. -Oh, I saw Idol and all that is Linda and it looks at it looks like a -- like one of those lenses, right. -Yeah, lens, yeah. -It looks like a lens, like one of those attachable lenses but the whole camera is inside of it. It's just missing the screen to be able to set up your shot and access settings-- -Oh, right. -by connecting wirelessly to your phone. It physically hooks on because it can adjust to any size. -Uh-hmm. -But it talks to your phone to suddenly let you see the view of what you're gonna shoot and if you don't have enough time to take your phone and connect it, you could shoot blindly by just hitting the shutter button, -Uh-hmm. -and hope it comes out. But talk about a different take on the problem of having a smartphone and not whining to carry another camera around. -Right. -It's still massive. This thing is a giant zoom lens. But that's the point because you wouldn't need a point-and-shoot simple camera. -Uh-hmm. -You would only probably take this out on a sight-seeing vacation or sporting event where you wanted something that really can get a good zoom lens. -Right. -And it will go with an iPhone and Android phone. It just kind of sizes to a certain width. -Uh-hmm. -Clamps on. -Clamps on. -And then just talks to your phone wirelessly. So, you can change the settings on it. But that price is crazy. Starts at $250. -Whoa! -And a higher one is $500. -That's crazy and it's especially crazy because it's not really new technology, right? Ariel, you use sort of carry around a bag of lenses that fit right onto your iPhone, right? -No. I just have that one or the clip one. -Just one. Okay. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, this is the next level. -This is the-- yeah, it's called the Cybershot QX10 and QX100. -Uh-huh. -And it's just-- I don't know what group would want this except for professionals, you know. -Wow. Okay. So, we're looking at a photo of it right now. Josh Goldman from CNET already has a review of. It has a huge lens, it was a lot bigger than what I thought I was gonna be. -Yeah, right. -I thought it'd be like maybe the size of a quarter. -Uh-hmm. -It's actually wider than the iPhone need an editor and it meteor the size of a quarter. It's actually wider than the iPhone itself it looks like. -Is it zoom lens? -That's HTC One I believe. -Yeah. That's crazy. Oh, okay. -But here's something to know. It doesn't have a flash. So, it still depends on your camera's flash to go off if you need it or hope you don't. -Right. -And-- but yeah, the whole camera is inside of that little thing and it's just using your phone to be able to see what you're shooting. -Yeah. -And it toss to your phone through Bluetooth or-- -I wanna say WiFi. -Yeah and-- -But I wonder if it can also do Bluetooth. I wasn't sure about that. -Uh-hmm. -You know what sounds really cool is that, it looks like the SD card slot is actually embedded within the lens itself. -Yes. -So, you don't have to use your phone's storage in order to store-- -Oh, that's cool. -photos. That's really cool. -Exactly. It contains everything into itself. -Yeah. -And I kind of slowly falling in love with the concept. -Uh-hmm. -But then again, I do like having a camera that can stand alone without having to depend on depleting my phone's battery of you know, like having two separate things as almost the backup of sorts. -Yeah, right. -It's basically a camera and your phone as the monitor. -Right. -Right. Your phone is he monitor so you can access the settings and line up your shot properly. -I think it's pretty cool. -Yeah. I like it. I'm curious to know how you're supposed to transport this thing because it looks really fragile. The lens is exposed, there's probably a cap on it, but it doesn't look like you could just throw this thing attached to your phone in your pocket. -No. I mean, it probably has a case, I would hope. -Yeah. -But the zoom does kinda compact into itself. -I just see this as like a point-and-shoot replacement. You know what I mean? -Right. -Like, people learn to that. -Well, no, no. No, your smartphone is the point-and-shot replacement. -Yeah, for sure, for sure. -But this is the, you know, putting up a notch, I guess. -Yeah, for sure. -Right. It's sort of the same idea as like the Samsung Galaxy -Gear, right? It's just like an accessory for your accessory that already does a good job, but this is just like an even better, a little bit more convenient. -Right. -Yeah. I don't know if you really need this unless you're a professional photographer. -But I do like how Sony didn't limit it to only their Xperia phones. -Right. -For sure. -It could be other phones. -And if you use this to capture Instagram photos, it's technically not cheating-- -Yeah. -because you're still using your phone to take a picture. -Uh-hmm. -Which is okay. Yeah, you're like following the rule book of Instagram still. -Yeah. -Well, idea exactly I guess so. -That's like, you know-- -I didn't know that was a really important thing to worry. -Yeah. You don't know any friends that cheat and use like DSLR cameras and then-- -Yeah, my brother does that. -Yeah, and then they upload that to their phone. -Yeah. -You can always tell because there's like letter boxing on the side and the ratio is off. -Yeah. -It's look way too good, bunch of cheaters. I thought you were cheating until I found it was a lens for your iPhone. -Yeah. -It looks good. -No, I don't cheat. -Yeah. Looking at you [unk]. -Yeah. -So, what else is going on at IFA? Are those just the two big things? -Those are the most unique gadgets but it's just a ton of -new computers and-- -Yeah. -and folding laptops and televisions that glow from the outside. I think there's a new one. I forgot what they call it but like-- there's like a-- aura of white around these big 4K TVs that are coming out. -Yeah. -These ridiculously massive, you can't afford it anyway TVS. -Right. -So, it's okay. You can go on with your life now. -I'm sure we'll be inundated with them at CES 2014. -Oh, yeah. -Which we've already been planning for. It's my favorite time of the year. -Yeah. -Uh-hmm. -The CES time. So, we'll see you guys back in January on that stage. Next story, let's talk about this. This is really cool. You know, we always talk about how the print industry is on its way out, right? Nobody buys magazines anymore. -I do. -Everyone just looks at it on their app. -I do. Well, the thing that I go to Renaissance Faire, so I guess-- -Yeah. -I think for old fashion. -Yeah, yeah. -What magazines do you subscribe to? Modern Bride? -Yeah. -Oh, God, no. No. I guess a lot of the local ones of New York magazines -Oh, okay. Yeah. -and Time Out. Just to get a sense of what's going on and every time I see a deal on like a Groupon or Living Social, that's when I get my magazines. -Right, right. -Because I figure, oh-- I mean, it's like a whole year for 2 bucks, why not? It's kinda fun to have it around the house. -Yeah. Bathroom reading material, right? -Ladies don't do that. It's such a guy thing. -Oh, right, right. That's for Jose. I like The New Yorker. One of my friends read The New Yorker and he always passes the old issues on to me because no one can ever read an entire issue of The New Yorker before the new one comes out. Which is why I got stack of them at my desk right now. It's kinda nice. Carry them on a plane or don't have internet connection. But magazines, not totally on their way out and this is kind of cool. There's a new kiosk, made by a couple of guys that run a company called Mega News Magazines. And they're planning on putting these kiosks into places like airports and office buildings and things like that. But what makes these kiosks unique is that they print out magazines according to what you choose on the spot. So, as opposed to having, you know, too much excess at the end of the month, you know. This is actually a machine that prints it for you a la carte. -How long do you have to wait? -So, it takes about two minutes. -That's not bad. -Which is arguably way too long. -No. But that means quality isn't as good as a real magazine. -Right, right. -And is it glossy? Because that's the fun of feeling it. -I think it will be glossy, yeah, the paper will still be glossy. It will take two minutes because it has a Ricoh printer built into it. Which I'm totally geeking out about because I don't really get to talk about printers too much on this show. -Go, Justin, go. -Yeah. So, for someone who reviews printers for a living, this is really blowing my skirt up here. It's cool. So, the kiosk is actually connected wirelessly to this offsite server and that server has databases of over 200 magazines, which is really cool, you know, more than any newsstand can typically hold. And those periodicals are updated by PDF file, and so, when you order one of the kiosk they just send you that PDF file and they start printing it out right away. And they have journals, medical journals, newspapers, magazines, all different types of periodicals for you to choose from. -Hard to catch your attention when you have to now do a touchscreen because some of the beauty of and newsstand, -Right. -is that you do a double take because you didn't expect to see a celebrity, a crazy headline, -Right. -something that makes you go, and while you're waiting for the buzz or the train, you're kinda going-- well, maybe I'll just spend $2 and find out what that's about. -Yeah. -Whereas the screen, I have to go choose, choose, choose, choose, -Right. -and I'm probably not gonna pick the one I don't really expect to buy. -Yeah. -But I do like how environmentally friendly it is because I used to-- one of my first job actually was at a bookstore. -Uh-hmm. -And when the new magazines came in, they rip the covers off them and just toss them out. -Yeah. -And it's a very wasteful industry. -Uh-hmm. -When when you see the volume of what doesn't get bought, because they always have more than they need, especially with the weekly ones that keep changing over. -Right. -So, it's-- yeah, I'm kinda liking this concept, it's kinda interesting. -Yeah. -Yeah, I like it too. The only thing that I would see as being maybe a problem is it will-- it's just gonna cut down on browsing altogether, right? Because every newsstand you go to, there's just random people in suits and you know, going about their day, but then they stop and sort of flip through a magazine before they choose to buy it or not. This is really gonna cut down on that type of exposure for magazines. -Oh, yes. Sometimes, you have to browse. -It's a preview before you buy. -Yeah, you have to know, is this the kind of magazine I'm looking for or not? -Yeah. -You know, especially if you have a long train ride and you're trying to collect a couple. Yeah. -Right. I'm also curious to know in this article on Gizmodo, where I found this story, doesn't really detail it but I'm wondering about the prices, because I'm hoping, you know, obviously the publisher is gonna have to-- is not gonna have to pay nearly as much distributor magazines. I'm wondering if they're gonna sort of pass those savings on to the customer. Because right now, how much are magazines? It's like five, six bucks sometimes, depending. -Anywhere from $3.99 to right, $6.99. -Thirty or forty if you get it more thicker nice, like designed magazines. -Right. -Right. -It's expensive. So, you know, if these are maybe $1 or $2 just for the PDF file and the print, then maybe I'll buy. -I think this will do really well if you could get old issues. -Yeah. -Where I get some sports illustrated from '80s or like the source from the '90s. -Yeah. -I would definitely go crazy on this machine. -That's a great point. Yeah, I know a lot of people that like to buy, like play the Playboy magazine for the month and year they're born. -Yeah. -It would be awesome. -Uh-hmm. -Or if you just like missed one for some reason. -Yeah, for sure. -Go back and get last year's January issue. -Yeah, hopefully they don't do that because then I would definitely go crazy. -Yeah. We're talking about this [unk] issue. -Yeah, yeah. -Just get it out there. It's just all one piece. -Yeah. -With that belly button. That's a great point, though. I could definitely see that being like an archival thing for people. -For sure. -So, that's coming. And there's only one in Sweden up right now, but the guys that make this machine, they're hoping to put it in various airports by the end of the year. -Uh-hmm. -So, you might see this coming to an airport soon. -Airports, I can see if you're waiting for a plane, you have a little more time to browse. -Yeah. -Instead of buying an iPad, right? It's weird that they have iPad vending machines in the-- you just go and just like-- -So weird. -has money like, "Oh, I have an extra $400 in my pocket. [unk] buy an iPad for the plane." -That's so weird. I've never seen anyone do that. -Yeah. -One of these days I will see that. -Yeah, hopefully. Let's talk about Shazam. Do you guys have Shazam or-- -Shazam. -Shazam. -Uh-hmm. -Or music ID apps like that on your phone? -I do, yeah. -I never remember to use them when I'm thinking about it. -Yeah, right, because you're always like eating dinner with someone and-- -Yeah. -The problem with those apps is that you always have to have the phone really close to the speaker. -Yeah. -So, you always look like a freaking idiot just like trying to like hold the phone up like 2 inches away. Like, oh no, I'm just wondering what the song is. But anyway, there's a story that was really interesting. It's off Evolver.fm, which is one of my favorite digital music blogs. Turns out apps like Shazam actually generate 10% of digital music sales or one out of every ten digital song sales on the planet is source from Shazam and customers that are wondering what song is playing wherever. -Wow. That's pretty cool. -Yeah. -So, they wanna get it right then and there before they forget about it. -Yeah, totally and it's funny because we always, again, similar to the print industry, we always talk about the digital music industry suffering because of MP3s, and this is sort of one step that goes against that, right? And it's saying that, you know, music-- some music distributors actually have Shazam to thank for at least 10% of the music sales. This is coming from Shazam's music partnership's manager, John Davis, and he mentioned that Shazam alone generates $300 million of digital music sales per year. -Wow. -So, that's pretty impressive. -Is that instinct gratification. -Yeah, for sure. -So, you know, whereas before you might have had to, you know, go on down to the record store. Now, -Yeah. -right now, here now, got it. Bam! And although you're not buying maybe the whole album, you might be buying one song. -Right. -At the same time you're buying more than you would because you are buying like 10 different songs from 10 different artists. -Uh-hmm. -Right. Yeah. You know what I think it actually cuts down a lot too is the shame of asking somebody what song they're playing. -Yeah. -Right? I mean, that's always like the most humbling thing we have to go. -Yeah. -Like, hey, man, like, what song is this? -Yeah. I've done this plenty of times, man. -Yeah. -I have a good friend whenever I hang out his house, he always plays all this good music and I have no idea what it is. -Right. -And I got tired of asking him so I just Shazam all the time. -Right, yeah. -Yeah. -Because you feel like a food for not knowing, right? Like you're not cool. -Yeah, for sure. It's like, I should know this already. -Yeah, yeah, exactly. But then you're just on Shazam the entire time. -Yeah. -Like every single song is like, dude, I'll just give you a playlist. -Yeah. -But I think it helps with that because no one likes asking what music is playing. -Also another I've used just when I'm restaurants and there's a song playing and there's like a little break that I wanna sample to make music out of. -Oh. -I've done it plenty of times. -Nice. -Yes. It's a great tool, man. -Shazam is actually really accurate too. I've used to identify mashups, which I think is really impressive. I thought that I maybe will just recognize one of the two songs in the mashup. -Uh-hmm. -But it actually tells you what DJ made it and then remixes. It's pretty good with remixes too. -Oh, yeah, yeah. -And I think what makes that good is that bands or DJs can actually submit their own music to Shazam's database to get added. So, that way, you know, even independent artists like yourself, -For sure. -they can have their own out there. -For sure. And you know, you could also do it for movies too. It works if you play-- -No way. -If you-- if the movie is on, you just record that, it will tell you what movie it is. -Can you do it with like television shows too? -I don't know. -There are different apps for that. I don't know if Shazam is good enough for the television, but there are lots of apps that like, if you're on TV, you can just identify what it is. -Yeah. -Except for local broadcasting. It doesn't have that kind of-- -Right, right. -I've also seen commercials that say Shazam this commercial and then you get like a deal -Yes. -or like-- -No way. -I see that more and more now on the corner, bottom corner of commercials. -Yup. -Especially like-- we're talking like Target commercials or something big like that. -Oh, yeah. -Right and you get discounts just for Shazaming it or-- -Yeah. -is it like a QR code? -For more information or whatever, yeah, like a QR code, exactly. -Oh, that's genius. -Uh-hmm. -You guys haven't done that though. -No. -No, just-- -Just music. -Yeah. -I have done a movie and it worked. Yeah. -Yeah, I feel like movies playing on TV, I'm always wondering like, "What is this movie?" -Uh-hmm. -Gonn have to wait for commercial. -Well, this is called the guide. It just like put the guide on if you have that. -Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. -I was in a little diner and they're playing '80s movie and I wanted to know and I Shazammed it. -Oh. -I actually wanted to know the song that was playing in the movie but it pulled up the whole movie. -Oh, crazy. -Yeah, it was weird. It was weird. -And you look up the soundtrack to that movie, -Yeah, for sure. -it's insane how they do that. It just listens to the dialog? -Yeah. I don't know. I don't know because it was just a song playing at that time. -Yeah. -It pulled the whole movie. I don't know. -Well, I have a loose understanding of how Shazam works for audio, like it probably just registers like tiny snippets-- -Yeah. -of like the most dynamic parts of the song or whatever, and that probably just scanned the database for it. But in reality I have no idea how Shazam works. I don't think anybody really does. -Yeah. -It's magic that no one understands. Very bizarre. -Yeah, for sure. -Think a bunch of elves working in the back. -Yeah. -I know this one. -Yeah. -Really smart elves, yeah. Yeah, just Googling with their tiny fingers. Yeah, totally. That's really cool. I might have to update my Shazam app. I didn't know you could do that with the TV stuff. -Yeah. -Yeah, try that more often. You guys are inspiring me to go around Shazamming. -Yeah. -Shazam. You have to make that sound, right, when you hear it? -I have to say it. Yeah. -Well, that's gonna do it for us today, guys. There are actually a few voicemails but I'm gonna wait for Jeff to get back tomorrow to play them. And again, thanks for everyone who submitted their nomination for our 404 United Nations. Have you heard about this? -I saw it on Twitter. What are you guys up to? -So, we started getting-- you were here for that week when I believe it's Jorge who called in from Brazil and told us that he learned English by listening to The 404. -That's right, that's right. -And so, we're wondering where else do people listen to the show internationally. -Uh-hmm. -So, people have just started e-mailing us like crazy and what we've been doing is having one or two representatives from everywhere in the world and the map is filling up, so there's a lot of people everywhere as far, you know, there's people in Asia and Europe and South America. They're coming in from all around the globe. So, we're collecting this information and have no idea what to do with it. So, we're collecting that. We're-- hopefully maybe gonna have a map or something. -Yeah, we definitely need to do that. -Yeah. -Put a pin for every location. -Yeah, totally. Yeah. It would be saturated. -Pretty awesome. -Yeah, yeah. -So, keep those coming in, you guys, and Jeff is compiling all that stuff and we're gonna figure out a cool way to display it. -Uh-hmm. -So, keep those coming in and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-866-404-CNET, that's the number to call or you can record yourself and upload it to YouTube, send us an e-mail the404@cnet.com. Don't forget to check out our Reddit, our Reddit page. It's the404.reddit.com and then you can also add us on Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff. -Everywhere. -We're all every single social network, just go and do that. I won't be here tomorrow but Jeff would be back and then we'll all be back in the studio on Monday. So, Bridget, thanks so much for helping us out today. Always a pleasure. -Always a pleasure. -Yeah. It's mine. -Pleasure is all mine. -You'll come back in some other time. We need to get you back in on somewhat regular basis. -Yeah, well, this Thursday? -Yeah. -Thursday is my day, so yeah. -We'll do like next Thursday or the one after that maybe. -Yeah. -You'll be back. -It's a busy week next week with iPhone. -Yeah, that's right. -So, I'm sure I see on again on Thursday I'll be like just crazy. -Oh, my God. -I'll be like-- I'll be needing to go on The 404. -Yeah. CNET zombies throughout the office whenever Apple day comes around. -For sure. -Yeah. -I'm not looking forward to that. -But free pizzas. -Yeah. -Yeah, yeah. -They're like, oh, we'll feed just [unk] you have to work like 70 hours. -Yeah, yeah. -That's a small trade. CNET employees work for pizza. -Yeah. -Well, that's gonna do it for us. We'll see you guys tomorrow. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -And I'm Bridget Carey. -It's The 404. We're high tech, we're lowbrow. Not so lowbrow when Bridget is around because we're gentlemen. -Yeah. -Keep it in a classy. -Thanks for listening, guys. We'll see you tomorrow.