Ep. 1416: Where some developers just want to watch the world burn

-Hey. What's up, everyone. It's Wednesday, January 29th, 2014. It's The 404 Show. What's up? I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -How's everyone doing this fine Wednesday afternoon? -That should be a lot better. -Why is that, J Yu? -Just looking at these cookies that we have here. This is cool. I love that when we do a taste test on The 404, because it's always the first thing that I eat of the day. -Really? You haven't had any breakfast? -I haven't had any breakfast in anticipation of this moment exactly. -I'm no doctor but I'm pretty sure breakfast is you know, an important part of the day that you should-- -It's not even bright. It's 1 o'clock now. -Yeah, I know-- -We're recording this at 1 PM. -Okay. So, here's the deal. You know, we haven't done our real legit taste testing in a really long time and the fine people at Nabisco decided to send us over Limited Edition Oreo Cookies. You can't find this in the stores, man. -Yeah. -Not until Monday at least, when it comes out the day after the Super Bowl. So, we got Cookie Dough -Uh-hmm. -Oreo Cookies and Marshmallow Crispy Oreo Cookies. -Yeah. -I want-- I need to just read the fine print for all the fine people wondering about it. These cookies, they become like an internet phenomenon. -Yeah. -People, like when news came out that the people at Nabisco were gonna just go crazy and concoct this sort of flavor explosion, -Uh-hmm. -The internet lost its mind. -So, this is what we're looking at here. -So, we got our screen grab for today. -Yes. -So, I guess let's just shut the hell up and start tasting. -So, that one's the Cookie Dough. -So, this is the Cookie Dough one. Obviously it's not real cookie dough. They weren't gonna put like raw egg in-- -Right because that wouldn't be vegan. All Oreos are vegan. Did you know what? -I'll take your word for it. -Yeah. -Brother. -It's true. -So, this is now the Oreo Cookie Dough version. Still has the chocolate wafer -Uh-huh. -on either side but on the inside is a gray cookie dough colored icing. -Wait, wait. Oh. -Well, I can put it back together. It's fine. -I thought we were gonna do that, you know, like I grab one side, you grab the other. -Oh, no. We weren't gonna touch each other's food. -That's weird, right? -So now, I'm gonna try to lick. Should I give like a little lick maybe? No? -Yeah, let's gonna zoom it back. -Okay. So, just-- people wanna know like oh, does it really taste like cookie dough? It's tough to emulate when you're not having the raw egg. -Uh-hmm. -Okay. So, it's not-- it doesn't taste exactly like cookie dough. Almost has like a coffee, a mocha sort of taste, right? -Yeah, yeah. Definitely. I like it though. -Ariel? -Oh, I ate mine already. -You did? -Sorry. Yes. I didn't know we're supposed to wait and it was really delicious. -Dude couldn't wait five minutes. -I didn't eat breakfast either. -I'm on-- I'm like undoing the foil I have and Ariel was like, "Dude. I eat it." He just eats it right away. -Did you ever remember what it tasted like? You just ate both at the same time, right? -No, no. I have this one. I'll wait for this one. -All right. Well, do you remember what it tasted like? -It was delicious. -You liked it. -Yeah. -You liked it. -It was really good. I don't know. Chocolate, it tastes like chocolate to me. -I mean-- -I thought the inside was chocolate too. -Oh, okay. The Cookie Dough is a little-- like you said, a little coffee as notes of like coffee. -Yeah. -Keep going on that. I wanna see you get all the way. -I feel like the-- -It's weird. -It's like the cream is a lot less sweet than the actual like vanilla cream you should get. -The white cream? -Yeah. -Have you had the birthday cake one? -Yeah. -Oh, good. -No, it's good. Like sprinkled inside-- -How was that legal? -Oh, my God. That was really good. -It has got like confetti in it. -You know, the best Oreo that I've tried was last Halloween when they came out with a Candy Corn Oreos. -Oh, yeah. -Did you try it? -No. That seemed a little like blasphemous. -Yeah. They are pretty excessive, -Yeah. -but let's try this next one. -All right. So, here's the-- this is called, I believe it's called Marshmallow Crispy. -Marshmallow Crispy. Clearly because they couldn't use rice crispies in the trademark. -Right. That's, you know, another brand. You know, I will say one thing about all these Oreos that we're getting. The icing is like all uneven on all of them. It's just-- maybe that's why it's limited edition. I think they're handmade. -Yeah. -Anyway, let's taste the icing first. -So, the icing actually has bits of rice crispies. -It's got a little piece of-- yeah, or-- -Or-- I'm sorry. -No, they're not rice crispies. -Crispy cereal. -They're called crispy rice. -Inside of it. -It's crunchy and the milk-- it's good. -Uh-hmm. I like that. I like that because it reminds me of Rice Krispies Treats Cereal. -Uh-hmm. -Remember that? -Do I remember that? -It was so good. Overall, pretty good idea. -It's a great idea. Excuse me. My mouth is full but-- -Please. -I'm not gonna lie. I think I gotta give it to the Marshmallow. -Yeah, I would go for that too. -Uh-hmm. -Ariel? -I agree. -Yeah? -This is really good. -Yeah. -They're doing something better with that. Cookie Dough, I don't know. I-- like I'm a diehard cookie dough guy, -Uh-hmm. -I put it in ice cream, put it-- I'll just eat it out of the tube. -Yeah. -Marshmallow Crispy to me is the winner here. -Yeah. -I kinda just like the vanilla cookie too. It's a nice like difference from your normal typical Oreo. -Uh-hmm. -I kind of want them to get a little crazy and put the chocolate cookie with the Marshmallow Crispy icing. -You're sick. -I'm a sick-- -What is wrong with you? -Right. That's crazy. I'm crazy. -I could see that happening pretty soon. -Yeah. -I really want them to develop that Redditor's idea from last year, that Moreo concept. Do you remember that? -Oh, my God. That was like the trough? -It was insane. It was like this concept photo that a Redditor had Photoshopped last year. -Yeah. -He was like, you know, Nabisco should make the Moreo and it was basically a regular carton but with three columns. The first and three column was all chocolate cookie but the inside was this river of icing cream. -Right. -And the idea was that you would just take the cookies out and like funnel as much-- -Sure. -cream as you want on to the cookie. -They are using the Dunk-A-Roo method. -Yeah. Oh, I love these. -The Dunk-A-Roo method is an old patented method. -You know, the Yan Yan's came out before Dunk-A-Roos, right? Have you-- -Yan Yan's like the biscuit sticks and the chocolate icing? -Right, right. That was the pre-- -Yeah, it's like a deconstructed Pocky. -But I'm never really good at rationing out the-- -Are you finished way before the biscuits are done? -No. That's the thing. I always conserve a little bit too much because I'm worried that those last few sticks are gonna go uncreamed. -That's why you gotta go all in on the gecko. -What? Yeah. -That's it, man. That first Yan Yan dips got-- -Yeah, just go licking-- -you know, a four scooper. -There's more than enough in there to go. -I think so. Well, there you have it. The verdict is in. For me at least, Marshmallow greater than Cookie Dough. -Uh-hmm. -Justin, can we get a full rating from you? -I think I like the same one. -Same one? -Yeah, I like the Marshmallow. -All right. That's two for three. Ariel? -I'm going with the Marshmallow also. -There it is. Definitive scientific proof. -Yeah. -The Marshmallow Oreo is superior than the Cookie Dough one. You heard it here first. It's in stores Monday, February 3rd. Go buy some. -I kind of like the golden Oreo, the classic golden Oreo, which is the vanilla cookie, -Right. -with the like white cream on the inside. -Yeah. -You can almost call The 404 the Golden Oreo Podcast, you know, me and Ariel on one side, you on the inside. -Right. -Is it working? -so, you're saying I'm just like the pasty vanilla. -Perhaps, yeah. And then Ariel, being-- -So, you're saying I'm the best part of the show? -Yeah. -Like the best part of the cookie? -Of course. I mean, you can't have the icing without the cookie, of course. -Can. -So, it's all sort of like a team. -Harmonious. -I mean, it'd just be a chaos. -Yeah. -So, yeah, I heard that-- believe it or not, did you know that Hydrox was like the first version of cookie with a vanilla icing in the middle? -Without the name of the cookie? -So, you don't know what Hydrox is? -No. -Look it up real quick. -That sounds like an industrial strength cleaner, not a cookie brand. -It does, right? Well, you're thinking of like Chlorox. But Hydrox, H-Y-D-R-O-X. -What? -Yeah, it's like the original Oreo and apparently, according to UberFacts' Twitter, -Yeah. -they stole-- Oreo stole the idea from Hydrox. -Well, maybe Hydrox should have thought of a better name. -I don't know, man. I feel like-- I mean, you've never had a Hydrox cookie? -No. How old are you? These look like they're from the 1920's. -They're literally over 100 years old. -Yeah. -They're like 110 years old or something. -Can you even buy this? Look, this is the ad for the Hydrox. -Yeah. Look at that? Proof. It's been in a proof. -It's like on a metal sign. -Yeah. It's like a Russian era that's painted in-- on like a brick building. -Yeah. -[unk] special. -It was one cent for a whole case. -Yeah. -I don't know, man. That's what I read and apparently it's true. -Uh-hmm. -But nevertheless, they didn't really expand beyond the whole vanilla cream. -Look at this. -What's that? -They even encourage you to dunk your Hydrox in-- -Coffee. That's where they went wrong. -beverage. Wait, what? -What? What did you read in there? -This is craziness. -Yeah, go on. -Look, it looks like they're telling you to dunk your Hydrox in your lemonade. -Oh. -Is that a thing? -That's disgusting. -Yes. -No way. -That's where they went wrong. They got greedy. -In lemonade? -They got greedy. It's just about the milk. -Well, they thought they were gonna be the only game in town. -Right. -Little did they know, 30 years, 40 years later, -Yeah. -the Oreo people-- -Hydrox is to MySpace as Oreo is to Facebook. -Nice. Just wanted to do it now and see if our listeners could appreciate and understand. -Right. -Very good. All right. There you have it. Oreo Limited Edition. They're limited edition, they're only making a few. -Yeah. -The few million boxes of-- -We're in New York, so we don't have to worry about getting them. -Right. -But you know, for everyone else, I'm sure you can buy them online maybe. -Yeah, I would probably wait. I would start camping outside your Walmart right now. -Yeah. -That's what I would do. Moving along-- -Remember when-- I'm sorry. -No, of course. -I know you're moving along but let me say one more thing. -It's fine. Yeah. -Remember when Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies were apparently gonna go out of production and people just bought them up like crazy? -Right. -Yeah. -In New York City, you couldn't fine a Twinkie anywhere. -It's weird. -You'd like go up to Harlem to buy your Twinkies because people were buying them up in bulks so they could sell it on eBay. And then two months later there was no shortage at all. -You know-- -They're like, "You know, we're going back in the production. Everyone that bought them, just thanks for buying those things." -It's weird the priorities we have. -Yeah. -All those people braving the elements to scoop up Hostess confectionaries and then like-- -Yeah. -no one votes like on Election Day. -No one votes. -Like no one goes [unk]. -Yeah. -It's weird, it's weird, it's weird. -Twinkies aren't even that good. -They aren't. They actually-- I kind of hate them. -Yeah, sort of gross. -I agree. -You also can't eat too much of-- like I can't eve finish these Oreos but there are crazy sweets, so-- -So, nutritionally speaking, -Yeah. -one cookie has 6 grams of sugar, which is crazy. -How does that compare to the original Oreo? -I don't know. I'm sure it's similar. Crazy, right? -Yeah, yeah. -Six grams of sugar for one cookie. All right. Anyway, let's all detox, not crush and burn on the sugar high. I wanted to bring up something real quick. This is happening in New York City. -Uh-huh. -If you're a Verizon customer, a nice chunk of subway stations have just introduced LTE service underground. It's happening. So, only at the stations but it's actually happening. -Yeah. -And it's also happening where I catch the PATH train, which is 34th Street Harold Square. I'm in the train, you know, because it's the last stop on the PATH right. -Uh-hmm. -So, I'm in the train using my phone, getting data. -Yeah. -Before it froze out. -You know, it's not just for Verizon too. I mean, I don't know about the PATH train but I've started noticing that I'm getting service on the regular subways. -Really? -From AT&T. -Really? -It's just universal service. Now, I think Verizon is actually-- Verizon and T-Mobile are the last ones. -Okay. -Last two carriers to jump on. -Got you. -But everyone should be getting it at this point. -But you can't make a call while the train is like moving around. -You can make a voice over data call if you have a program that can do that, but I don't think you can make a regular cellular call. -Right. Well, there's-- it's not that it's WiFi, it's LTE. -Yeah, yeah. -Like there's straight up data going on underground. And you know, I used to really dread that the second they started allowing this, it would just be chaos in the train car. -Yeah. -So far so good. -It's just fine. -I mean, I just-- you know what it is? For me, it's like, all right, I'm underground. Man, I always get upset because I'm like I forgot to download a podcast before I went underground or I forgot to grab some information. Not really having that problem anymore. It's like the little thing's in life-- -Yeah. -that afford us these little moments of delight. -I mean, yeah, you could always just, you know, crank your headphones up a little bit louder -Sure. -if someone's talking next to you. -Yeah. -That's not gonna be a problem. -That's all good. -Like New York [unk] drowning out noise. -I mean, I have a 9-minute train ride I guess. It's not that big-- -Right. The only thing that I think would bother me that I could see happening is people checking their phone as they walk down the stairs. -True. -You know, usually they have that-- their phone is in their pockets and they're like jamming down the stairs in hopes that they can catch like the train before the doors close. -Sure. -But now, I'm like really worried that that foot trap is gonna be slowed down. -But you always deal with that. There's stairs outside of subway stations. -Yeah, yeah. -Like you always deal with these bozos trying to, you know, text and walk at the same time. -Yeah. -Simply can't do it. -No, it's good. -It's-- what is it? They're saying 35 stations have just introduced the Verizon LTE service and the signal is good. I don't know how they did it. I feel like I used to see them working, you know, some sort of wire installation. -Uh-hmm. -And maybe that's how-- like that's what it evolved into but -Yeah. -I'm curious as to how they did it. -It'd be cool. We should maybe try to get in touch with MTA and do like a tech segment on how that works because I have no idea either. -Yeah. Hey, you should do that. -Me, I will do that, yes. -You should but you should produce a segment. -Yeah, I could do that. -And I will follow you wherever you lead me. -I can't help but notice that all of these trains that support some the service now, at least for Verizon, why are they all in the west side? Is there some classism going on here? I'm looking at one, two, three-- -No, there's the six. -No, there's no six. -Seriously, the bomb 28th Street, the station-- -But only the-- -right outside our office. -that's one. I'm not seeing anything supported off like, you know, oh, there's F trains here but-- -That's because they're syphoning the signal from New Jersey. -Yeah, the majority of it is like 1, 2, 3 and then RW service. -The-- you are correct. The vast majority of these stations are located on the east side of town. -No, west side. -Oh, west side of town. -Yeah. That's strange, right? What's up with that? -I don't know, man. Little NYC conspiracy. -Yeah. -You know, take it up with the blasting plan. You gotta take it up with him. -Yeah, I guess so. -But nevertheless, it's really cool. I'm into it, man. I used to be a hater. -Yeah. -Hate no more. I guess I kinda started liking it. I'm into it. -I think the whole idea, just from reading this press release is that, now, if you really did see something you could say something to a person that actually matters. -Oh, sure. -Not just the person next to you. -Oh, my God. How absurd was that whole-- -Yeah. -like there wasn't even a telephone you could pick up to notify. -It wasn't even like a coal box you could just hit up. -Yeah. -They would-- you know, people who aren't familiar with the city obviously hiding security on the last couple of decades, they have this slogan: If you see something, say something. -Yeah. -So, then they would proceed that with like a freaking phone number. -Yeah. -So, what they were proposing was that you see something and then like leave and make a call outside or something like that. -Right. -You know, or tell a police officer or something like that. -Uh-hmm. -Really impractical. -All the police officers that are stationed in the ground. -Exactly and the idiocy still applies when you're on a moving train and you can't call anyone. -Right. -So, we're about, you know, a core of the way now. -Do Muni buses in San Francisco have a way to call the authorities of [unk] down? -I feel like they don't and if there are, there are not enough people pressing those buttons. -Yeah. -Because when I visited in San Francisco over the holiday, -Yeah. -I realized that the public transportation there is a lot worse in terms of dealing with crazy people. -Uh-hmm. -Than it is here. -Crazy-- all manner of crazy people whether it's like crack heads or just homeless people. -Well, the volume is bigger here. There are probably more employees. -Yeah, you know, like there's just a lot of insane methadone addicts that are on the subways. -Yes. -Yeah. -When I was there, I got onto a bus. The-- I forgot-- it was the Turk bus going downtown -Uh-hmm. -Yes. -from USF. Yeah, kind of rough. -Yeah. -And I knew that it was gonna be bad because usually, you know, the bus is pretty evenly spaced out with people, right? But this one, the entire back of the bus was completely empty. Everyone was stuffed into the front of the bus, so I knew some shit was going down. That and then also you know when you normally get onto like above ground bus, nobody really makes eye contact with you when you get on. Everyone is kind of just involved in their phone or a reading a book. -Seats taken. -Yeah, like no one's really paying attention to you. When I got into the bus, everybody was making hard eye contact with me, which was like something that could mean to the fact that some, you know, there is bad stuff happening on this bus. -Really? -Yeah, like you know, but it was also like a frantic look like don't get on if you know what's good for you. It was bad. -Huh. -And I saw-- -And you were like cool. Let me get on this back. -Yeah, I was like, cool, let me get on the back. -Yeah. Let me sit on your lap, dude. -I look in the back and I see one guy sitting right in the middle of the very far seat, -Yeah. -against the window. -Yeah. -And he's like draped in blankets and-- -Blankets. -Yeah, and I was like, oh, this guy looks safe. -I'm into that. -So, I jumped on. I sit next to the people on the front. -Start whispering in his ear. -And this guy, after about 5 minutes of me getting onto the bus, just starts freestyle rapping and discontinues for the next 25 minutes. And it's just about random stuff like you know, bugs in his coffee filter and things like that. It was so weird. But the thing is, it was good. -Yeah. -It was not bad. Yeah, it is. He has his rhythm down, he had like some kind of beat going on in this head so it was fine. It wasn't just like stream of consciousness BS, like he wasn't telling a story. -Sounds like-- -But it also made sense, like linguistically. Really weird and that continued for like 25 minutes and no one told him to shut up until he got off the train like downtown. But like stuff like that happened a lot when I was in San Francisco. -Did you notice that when you're back? I don't know if it's gotten worse since I've left but-- -Yeah. -I feel like the public trans in SF is pretty gnarly. -Oh, yeah. It's-- I think it's worse than over here. Like as far as dealing with-- because the crazy people in San Francisco are a lot more aggressive. -That's true. -Yeah. They'll get in your face for no reason. -Yeah. There's this other time when me and my girlfriend are walking down the street in Mission at 24th, which is bad but it's not terrible, not the worst part of town you'd be walking in. -Uh-hmm. No, not at all. -And this guy comes up walking towards me and he looks homeless, clearly homeless, which is fine, you know, like he asked me for like a dollar and I say I didn't have one. And normally in New York once you say like, you know, I don't have a dollar, sir, sorry, they'd just go, okay, like have a good day. -Uh-hmm. -They-- yeah, it's usually like a God bless thing. -Yeah or whatever. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -But this guy-- -This guy said I'm not taking no for-- -Yeah, without saying a word, he just turns towards me right when I pass him and he just goes, "Fucker." I was like, man, I'm not that. I'm a nice guy, like I just didn't have a dollar on me. It reminded me of Happy Gilmore. You know, like I was just like, you jackass. -Oh, yeah. -I look like that guy. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -And I was just like, man, like as if homeless people really get in your face. -Uh-hmm. -Like they are-- I don't know if it's like the weather in New York that beats homeless people down so they're not super aggressive. -Oh, my God. I heard someone say something so offensive about like the attitudes of homeless people in New York as opposed to other places in the world. -Yeah. -This is not my opinion. I do not express this opinion. I think it is offensive and terrible. -Uh-hmm. -But what this person was saying was that people-- this is so screwed up and please no one edit this to make it sound like I believe what I'm about to say. -Okay. Let's hear it. -He basically said that homeless people in New York are just like lucky to be in a metropolis like New York. -What? -And they like are in some way grateful for being homeless in New York rather than being a homeless in another city, which is crazy, which is absolutely crazy. -I mean, I disagree with that. -Of course. -Just on principle. -I would wanna be homeless where it's nice. Yeah. -I'll just say but also clearly, homeless people in California should be happier because it's a lot easier to sleep outside. -Right. I don't wanna be homeless in SF. -Yeah. -Yeah, for sure. -Or Southern California. -So, maybe they're just, you know, taking-- -Maybe he's saying that people in New York are little more affluent, so they're willing to give away more. -Well, the crocks of his statement was because it does appear that homeless people in New York are not as aggressive as other cities. -Uh-hmm. Something that New York homeless people don't have is that SF methadone lean. It's almost like a dance move. You know what I'm talking about, Ariel? -Oh, my God. -Like you'll be walking around the Tenderloin and you'll see a guy like sort of standing, -Hey, get up. Show me. -but crouched over. And he'll look-- it's almost like a Michael Jackson lean where he'll like lean over so much that it looks he's defying gravity. -Yeah. -And then he's about to fall down, but he never actually falls down. -Right. It's like the ultimate lean. -It's amazing. Yeah. -Yeah, yeah. He has like this really, really awesome sense of balance. -Good for them, man. -That's probably induced by drugs but you don't really see a lot of methadone clinics in New York. Aside from the one that's right next to our office. -Right. -You've seen that one, right? -It is there. -I think that's the only one. -All right. We gotta check it out. -It's probably why that street need car park right in front of the building. -They just like give you like Subutex and all that stuff. -Yeah. -Oh, God. All right. Let's transition out of the hardcore drug use and homeless people. And let's get into a little gaming chat. -Yeah. -Hello, gaming chatter. It's been a little bit because games kind of having been in the news lately, that's fine. January is always a slow month. But Amazon is coming out and saying that they are gonna join the competition. It's been a long rumored thing but apparently, later this year, Amazon is planning on releasing a sub $300 gaming console, that would download games directly to it and also provide other entertainment options. So, I would imagine that means it's gonna run on Android, it's gonna allow for streaming and downloading games and it might even have its own unique proprietary sort of controller. -Uh-hmm. -I'm not sure this is like the best time to be entering the video game console market. -Uh-hmm. -But nevertheless, if anyone can do it, Amazon sure can. I think they need to undercut the Wii U in my opinion. -Right. -Which is at $250 right now. So, if they will release like $200 machine, I think they'd really make-- as if Nintendo hasn't you know, cropped that already with what's going with them. -Yeah. -And we do have a story that's gonna follow this up. But yeah, man. -Aren't Android games either free or-- -No, like less-- -like less than $5. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -So, then-- I mean, it just doesn't seem like a relative rate, like amount to pay, you know, like a console would cost $400 but the games are so much better. Would you pay $300 for something that you can only play $2 games on? -That's a great question. I don't know, maybe. I mean, you can get away not paying a lot of money for indie games and stuff like that on the big consoles. -Uh-hmm. -So, you bring down that, you know, sort of installation price. -That's true. -Maybe you make [unk] deal. -Maybe Amazon will offer like a prime type extension where you can get an all you can need. -I think that's almost like the-- yeah. I think that's like a given like they would definitely do that. -Right. -Plus if they're offering, you know, streaming stuff, that might enter, you know, another room for them. It's-- you know, to me, Amazon can get away with doing stuff like that. They really-- have they released hardware that failed miserably yet? Have they done that? -I feel like they're has been but-- -There might have been one. -Yeah. -But it doesn't come to mind right away. -No. -You know, Apple's released stuff that doesn't really work and they can afford to do that, and I think Amazon is almost in that same sort of category where they can experiment-- -Uh-hmm. -and do stuff. If it comes out, I'd love to review it. So, we'll see what happens later this year. Brings us to another story that is just man, you know, every time I bring up Nintendo, you know, last week, when I was filling in on update, -Uh-hmm. -I just, you know, I cry a little inside. I die a little inside. -It's not over yet. Don't count them out yet. -It's not over yet, you know, the train hasn't completely derailed but times are tough at Nintendo HQ, so much so that the President, Satoru Iwata, -Uh-hmm. -he's halving his salary. -This is something that I don't think an American, anybody, would ever do. -No. I think there's been like a guy who like made his salary like $1. -For a corporation? -Yeah. -This size? -I think-- I wanna say someone did that. -Really? It's very rare. -Right. Does that ring a bell, Ariel? -Yeah, it does. -Like some CEO like said, oh, I'm just gonna pay myself $1. -Oh, I like that. -I mean, these are like millionaires who are doing that. -Yeah. -But nevertheless, it's more symbolic. -So Nintendo, they reported 30 percent lost in profits last quarter? -For the third financial quarter, yeah. -It was pretty bad and so, he and other members of the board are gonna be taking pay cuts in the following year salary. He's gonna be doing-- -That includes Reggie? -50 percent. I don't know if it's gonna be American members of the board. Article is unclear about that but the board is gonna take between 20 and 30 percent. So, it's at least a little bit noble. -Yeah, for me, I mean-- it's you know, the games have been okay in the last 6 months. -Yeah. -But it's not moving hardware. -Can I ask you a question? -Most certainly. -About Nintendo. -Yeah, absolutely. -You may not know the answer to it and I'm sure the question has been asked a lot. -Okay. -But what occurred to me is that, why the hell isn't there a Mario or like a Zelda iOS game? -So-- -What is the road block? -There's no like-- -Because they can make so much money of that. -Of course. For them, I think they don't wanna like dilute their product. -I think it's beyond that. It's beyond that though, right? -Well, they maintain that and their mantra and let's not forget like the mentality of Nintendo. -Uh-hmm. -They're a very traditional prideful Japanese company, -Sure. -that has a lot of respect for the industry for themselves. -Uh-hmm. -Super admirable. Like everything about that way of doing business, -Right. -you can't knock them for having that mentality. At the same time, it sort of you know, makes it very difficult for them to sort of concede to that. They maintain that playing Nintendo games is only best experienced on Nintendo platforms. -Uh-hmm. -So, I really don't think, at least anytime soon, that we'd ever see an iOS version of Mario Brothers because -Uh-huh. -They maintain like the touchscreen buttons and all that stuff is not the way these games are supposed to be played. -Uh-hmm. -And anyone who has seen emulation videos where people do get those games on iOS platforms, it sucks. -Yeah. -It's not as good. It's nowhere near the full Nintendo button experience. -Yeah. -And for them, so there's that, they don't want to, you know, saturate-- oversaturate themselves by releasing these games and to them, and I guess when you think about it logistically and you know, fundamentally from a business model standpoint, they don't wanna just dilute that market and just get you know, have their stuff out there like that. -Uh-hmm. -And I get it. There are problems that they need to compete though with the 99 cents stuff. Like I get it. You don't wanna put your games on iOS or Android, that's fine. But you need to provide that solution, that business model to the people who want that game and that experience. -Uh-hmm. -Obviously, if they put Super Mario 3 on iOS, they'd sell 15 million copies right away, like who wouldn't buy that for 4 bucks or whatever it is. -Just seems like an-- -So, what they need to do is they need to figure out a way, they like have that on something everyone already has. Whether it'd be like a 3DS or something like that. It's a tough spot they're in right now because the industry is moving forward at light speed. -Uh-hmm. -And they really seem to have their heels dug into the sand and like they're ready to just like battle it out. And you know, there's a lot of talking heads. Everyone has an opinion about what they need to do, what they should do. There were some stories that surfaced over the last few days that Nintendo was gonna have like mini games on iOS stuff. But now they came out today and said, no that's not happening. -They did say that there's gonna be a new business strategy unveiled on Thursday that sort of is around the mobile smartphone markets. I guess it's something like that. -So, we'll see-- I think what they might do is, if anything-- see, you know, like people are gonna be bummed out. Like it's not-- I don't think they're gonna just start releasing demos of games. I think they're just gonna have like a portal for video like content from Nintendo. So, like maybe-- there might be like a Nintendo direct app, -Uh-hmm. -where you download the app and you get to see what everyone else sees every month when they do that Nintendo direct, which is them talking to their shareholders and talking to their customers and saying, here's what we have planned to release, here's what's gonna happen. I think that's all that's gonna be. It's-- I don't think they're gonna have games. What they could do, and I don't think it would be as lucrative obviously as releasing original hardware from the vault. They could make touchy tappy flippy games with Nintendo brand it stuff, that are built from the ground up for iOS. So, you do like you know, maybe you have like-- remember that mini game in Super Mario 3 where you have to like do the memory card, -Uh-hmm. -of like-- -Pick two matching. -you know, pick two match and they might do stuff like that where it's not like, you know, touch controls could work and would be the same experience. But I don't think you're gonna have like platforming, you know, Mario. It's just it doesn't make sense. -Uh-hmm. -And I'm trying so hard not to say Mario. -You could say it. It's fine. -You know. -Everyone knows it from the East Coast. -So, it's crazy, man. -I know. -You know, every time I think about it, you know, especially like when I look at like little kids, when I see like an 8-year-old, I see Jeff at 8 years old in 1990, -Uh-hmm. -when, oh, I gave a shit about who's Nintendo. -Yeah. -That's all I cared about and then Genesis and Super Nintendo both like, right? That was years when NAS like controlled your life. -Uh-hmm. -It's crazy. You ask an 8-year-old like, hey, what do you think of the new Mario game? And they're like, screw you, you know. -Yeah. -They literally curse you on. -Like kick you in the balls. -Kick you in the balls and run away. -You know, right when you talked about having, you know, this like childish demographic, I thought this idea, like why doesn't Nintendo-- bear with me. -I'm bearing. -Why didn't Nintendo come out with a theme park? Has it ever been discussed before? -Perhaps. -They should have a physical theme park not unlike Disneyland where they could bill all their franchises into rights. Like for example, I don't know, Mario kart racing and it would be like a driving game that-- or a driving ride that you could get on. -I mean-- -Or you know, like a Smash Brothers type of thing, -Yeah. -or like Pokemon, everything. Like why wouldn't they try to cash in on that popularity with kids by building something they can go to. -Well, one, they don't have-- -Like Legoland. -Like they have a lot of cash but that's a huge investment. -I would go to Nintendo to work. -Don't-- yeah, but don't forget like their demographic is skewing older in a weird way where it's like it's me. It's people in-- from like their mid 20's to like early 40's, -Nostalgic, yeah. -who have the nostalgia thing. So, like why build a theme park for kids when it's just old people that really, really appreciate what they're doing? -Yeah. I mean, maybe-- I don't know. I'm just spitballing here, but it could just be like a family type deal where people like you, maybe not exactly like you, but people with kids, -Yeah. -that also share that nostalgia could maybe share it with their children. -I don't know, man. -I think I'm gonna build it in my backyard. I'm gonna build a very small model of it [unk]. This is the way that-- -Good luck. -This is the way that they're gonna pull themselves out of this financial stuck. -Good luck, sir. I wish you nothing but the best. -It's gonna be great. -Speaking of games, last story about games and then we'll move on to our final story. So, you've heard of this game Titanfall. Have you heard of Titanfall? -Uh-hmm. -Titanfall is one of the most anticipated next-generation video games. Again, this season right now is-- it's farty, man. There's nothing out. Everything is in a state of like stagnancy. There's just not a lot of big games coming out. Titanfall which comes out in March is easily the most anticipated game and I'd say that along with Infamous: Second Son, which is a PS4 exclusive. Titantall is only coming out on Microsoft consoles and PC and it's been rumored that the beta will be coming out on Valentine's Day. In the words of Russ Frushtick, what comes to mind, like why would you release a game like this which is essentially like a futuristic Call of Duty, that you know nothing but dudes are gonna be playing hardcore for the foreseeable future? -Uh-hmm. -And then release it on Valentine's Day. Are they trying to destroy relationships in America? Like why would you do this? So, what just came to mind is just Russ Frushtick saying like, some developers just want to see the world buried. -Yes. -Something like that. It's crazy, right? -Yeah. -How could you do that? How could you release a game like that on Valentine's Day. -What a tease. Yeah. -It's just like chaos. Hey-- -I'm surprised too. I mean, is that confirmed or is that just a rumor? -The reports and the rumor seem to point at February 14 being the day and it would only run five days long. -Yeah. -So, you're essentially saying, all right, well, it would come out in Valentine's Day. And then your significant other couldn't even like make it up to you for a week, -Yeah. -because they'd still be playing the beta. -And it's one thing they compete against other game franchises. It's another thing to compete against [unk] across the world. -Right. -That's tough. -It's tough. -Good luck with that, Titanfall. That's like some pretty lofty ambition that's there. -It's pretty ballsy of them. -Yeah. -So, again, the date hasn't been 100 percent confirmed but the beta is coming out. It isn't coming very soon, people from within Respawn, the company that makes Titanfall. -Uh-hmm. -They've confirmed that. So, hey, -Good luck. -good luck. Luckily for me, I'm well past the point of Valentine's Day mattering. -In your opinion. -Well, she doesn't like Valentine's Day. -You sure about that? -Think over this every year. -We do. I'm curious about Ariel because Ariel never like talks about that. -Uh-huh. -Would Valentine's Day this year is gonna be a big deal for you and your new wife? -My wife won't even be in town. So, I'm gonna get that video game. -Wait, what is she gonna be doing on Valentine's Day? -She travels a lot for her job, so she's gonna be traveling somewhere. -So, are you guys gonna like make up for it? You gonna have a-- -At least I do a little something but it's just like, you know, I'll cook something, it's nothing big. We don't-- -Oh, yeah. -We don't do like big gifts or anything like that on Valentine's Day. -Uh-hmm. -And what about your girlfriend? -Last year-- -Is it a big deal to her? -No. It's not a big deal. -No. -She's not-- she's like your guys. -She's one of the good ones. -Uh-hmm. -Yes. She's a catch. She doesn't care about that stuff. -Yeah. -I mean, -Uh-hmm. -it's like any other day except, you know, we go out to slightly nicer dinner. Last year, we did hot pot at home. -Oh, I remember that, yeah. -Which was really nice because we didn't have to deal with the crowds and stuff, which is really good. So, I'm looking forward to something like that again this year. -Yeah. -Also, our like anniversary, I don't know why talking about anniversaries when you're just dating somebody is kind of cheesy. -It's okay. -But it's February 5th. So, it's pretty close to Valentine's Day. So, celebrating both of those, -I smell-- -two birds in-- -Yeah, yeah. I don't wanna do both. -Yeah. -So, you just make one day. -[unk] going business, doing something like that. -Yeah, for sure. -So, yeah. -All right. I'm curious to hear about all the people anticipating the release of the Titanfall Beta. What are you guys gonna do? How are you-- -For Valentine's Day? -Yeah, I wanna hear from our listeners, e-mail us the404@cnet.com. Finally, we got a story about perhaps what's one of the biggest tech myths or realities. -I wanna know. -I know the answer to this. -You do. Okay, okay. -I do. -Let me set this up for you then. -Just set it up, yeah. -So, our CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, CBS KDKA 2, they've been having a rough season over in Pittsburgh. It's been really cold there lately. But you know, they're making some claims. That's a little kind of funny. And I kinda wanted to either refute or confirm this claim. They put out a report today on TV where they interviewed a guy that owns a cellphone repair store called Digital Doc, little [unk] there. -Digital what? -Doc. -Doc? -Doc as in doctor. -Okay, Digital Doc. -And-- Doc. Digital Doc. -I mean like you weren't saying dock. -Yeah, sorry, sorry for our New York listeners. And he's claiming that basically cold temperatures can make your battery in your cellphone get cut in half. And he's saying that you know, it's depending on, you know, how over cold and hot your particular manufacture test to. So, iPhones, he says are particularly susceptible to cold but Samsung is actually a little bit more protected. So, if you have a Samsung phone, they rate that from -4 degrees all the way up to 128 degrees. So, you're pretty good unless you're in Arctic temperatures or on the sun. -Right, but -4 is not that crazy especially this season. -No, no. Yeah. Especially with the wind chill, if you're using that outside, you could potentially kill your battery life by half. Not permanently. Just lose a charge. -Right. -Now, I know that it could potentially be true because I know that a lot of car batteries tend to die. -Right. So, think about it. Like when you know, cars have trouble starting in the winter. -Right. That makes perfect sense. -Right. -I've seen that happen a lot. -So, why does that make sense? -Because battery life loses charge in cold weather. -So then why-- -That's the only claim that I'm making. -Okay. So-- -But does that theory translate over to cellphone battery? -Well, maybe. -You would think that a company like Apple or Samsung that manufactures these phones to be used everywhere would, you know, maybe test them in colder and hotter temperatures? -I wanna-- I wanna preference this whole conversation with the fact that like we don't really know for sure 100 percent, but-- -An Apple nor Samsung has made-- -Right. A statement of that. -like a statement of that. -So here's the deal, the car thing is definitely a reality. Anyone who lives in a cold climate can vouch for that. -For sure. -It's clearly a real thing. I remember with older cellphones, when I would go skiing, they would die right away. -Uh-hmm. -Okay. That's older phones, older battery technologies. I always have walkie-talkies with me whenever I go skiing also and those batteries seem to go quicker when it is colder as well. -Uh-hmm. -So, there's some more-- -Interesting. -evidence with that. I remember using an iPod on the mountain, like the old school iPod and that thing kind of like not only with the battery not last as long but the screen would lag more in the cold. -Uh-hmm. -Yeah, for sure. So, I don't know if that was like the LCD freezing up or whatever it is, but I don't know. I like to bring stuff with me when I go skiing, so I have those experiences. -Uh-hmm. -You look around and you like try and find the chemistry sort of answer to all of this and there does seem to be evidence that batteries lose their charge quickly in cold weather. It's just like a thing. It's just-- it has to do with you know, terminals and the chemical reactions that gets slowed down in cold weather. Yeah, I mean, I'm not making it up, man. There's like evidence. -Okay. All right. -Again, though, it does seem like a little fishy and like one of those urban myths. So, I invite our listeners-- -Yeah, I wanna know. -to shed some more light on this now controversial topic. -Yeah. I mean, I'm not discounting it completely. Obviously, I'm from California, so I can confirm that iPhones do work at 75-degree weather. -Beautiful 70-- the battery will last forever. -Don't worry about that. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -But for people that live in colder temperatures, I wanna know for sure. And I wanna know if people have been able to regain that battery life by putting it into like a covered screen case. -Right. -Or something like that. -If you keep the phone apparently, what this article is proposing as well, if you keep your phone closer to your body, -Yeah, in a sock. -in these extreme temperatures, you will reduce the amount of Arctic weather that that -Yeah. -could potentially compromise the charge of the phone. -Yeah. But the amount of bacteria that you could potentially put on the phone-- -You know, it's crazy. I definitely wanna hear from people-- -Just throw that right in your pants. -I know we have engineers that are listening to the show. I know we have people way smarter than we are in this specific category. So, please, do not hesitate to e-mail us, the404@cnet.com <mailto:the404@cnet.com>. -I would be surprised if nobody at Apple during the development process of the last 5 iPhones released was like, maybe we should test this for more extreme. -Sure. I mean, you know, I think-- don't forget, you know, you bring your phone with you skiing. It's not the optimal operating conditions. -No. You wouldn't wanna be using it on the slopes anyway, too much. -No. Like you-- people bring their phone just-- I bring it just in case. -As an emergency. -As an emergency, yeah. Right. And you know what? When you get to the top and you take a photo and you Instagram it, that's nice. -Yeah. That's true. -But yeah, you don't use it like while you're going down the mountain. -Right, right. -Fore sure. -All right. Well-- -And I know a lot of people who've fallen on them and broke in them while skiing. -Yeah. -So-- -Let me hear from our farming listeners whether or not these phones get damaged when they're outside all day. -Right. That'd be interesting. -Everyone, let us know. -Absolutely. That will do it for us on the story front. I wanna get to a few e-mails and then we'll say goodbye for the day. On Twitter, this is from Nick. Yesterday I was talking about like, oh, there's a 555 on for telephone numbers. What's the equivalent for fake like internet addresses? -Oh, the fake number, right. Uh-hmm. -He said, "Well, there might not be an internet address but you could always use like the local host address, like 127.0.0.1--" -Uh-hmm. -"or like the 192.168 thing. Kinda nerdy," -That's super nerdy. -"but I guess you can get away with doing that because it's not a publicly available address." And we have someone writing in about movies and recommendations, stuff like that. This is from Vote Positive, "I have a thing with Justin where I want Justin just to watch like one Woody Allen movie." I don't think he has, right? -I refuse. -You refuse now. It's just a matter of principle. Vote Positive writes in and says, "Justin, I know you're, you know, the lowbrow guy when it comes to food, movies and everything else cultural, but--" and like this person, they felt the same way especially about Wood Allen, the same way you kinda feel. -Uh-hmm. -But that was until he saw Everyone Says I Love You. -Is that an older Woody Allen movie? -It is an older Woody Allen movie. -Okay. -He says, "It was hysterical. You gotta see it." And he thinks that might unlock the door for you to start enjoying more of his films. "I think that's a good starter. I think Take the Money and Run is a good starter." Are you willing to accept the challenges of our loyal listeners? -No. -Okay. You've heard it [unk]. -No-- -Thanks for writing in-- what? -I have a long list of movies that I wanna watch-- -But you're gonna watch what again? -So-- -You have media-- -I have to watch The Rock 300 more times. Operation Dumbo Drop is gonna watch itself. -No, it's not. -So, I'll put it on the list. -Sure, sure. -Right below Godfather. -Sure you will, sir. Just watch Shawshank. Or you did watch Shawshank? -No, I didn't. -No, you didn't. The fun never ends here at The 404 Show. Why don't you become a part of the situation we have here? 866-404-CNET is the number but don't call that right now. Send us an e-mail the404@cnet.com, then get on Twitter and follow us @The404. Participate in our Subreddit, that's Reddit.com/r/the404. Follow all of us on Twitter, that's an easy thing to do. Head over to the blog, CNET.com/the404. Follow us on Facebook and all that other stuff. We're back here tomorrow. A lot of guests to announce. Don't worry, that's all happening very soon. And again, Qbert will be here on Friday, -Yeah. -which should kick all kinds of this. Until tomorrow, I will see you guys soon. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -This has been The 404 Show. High tech, lowbrow. Have an awesome Wednesday. We'll see you tomorrow.