[00:00:20] Happy to have you along my fellow Americans. Welcome back to Tech Watch where we keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. I'm Sam Bushman, Jay Hill with me. This broadcast is brought to you by NetworkProvidersInc.com. You've got a friend when it comes to IT. Think about a strategic partner with IT knowledge. Think about security. Think about a help desk. Think about decisions that can bless your company, help it prosper, save you money, embrace AI and best of all, not have IT.
[00:00:49] IT issues because we've got a help desk as well. Spread the word. NetworkProvidersInc.com. Hi Jay. Hey Sam, how's it going? It's going fantastic, sir. There's all kinds of weird tech news out there though. Lots of it. In there. Lots of it. Global smartphones. Shipments falling. Well, I don't know why they call these things smartphones because my phone just seems to be dumber all the time. It's just less smart than any other device I have it seems like. It's supposed to be getting smarter and smarter. Getting AI and you know.
[00:01:19] It's just becoming better every day. But it's not. But it's interesting though. The global smartphone shipments fell 11% year over year in the second quarter of this year. It was the worst quarter too in 13 years as AI driven memory shortages have pushed up the cost for components and hurting low cost makers the most. So I think it's pretty incredible though. The 13 year low in phone shipments. I don't know. I think it's a mature market.
[00:01:46] I think there's a lot of reasons. Not just the price of RAM and processors that are pushing it up. But it's a there's a lot of reasons for this and it's pretty incredible. Do you think it's just an affordability problem? I think it's partly that. I think it's I think it's also that everything's so much. I mean like for example I've got an iPhone 14. My son has adult son. He has an iPhone 10 that he's been had for whatever that is. Seven, eight, nine years. However long it's been out.
[00:02:12] He's still fine. I mean I'm like what are you going to upgrade? And he's like it works for me. I'm kind of waiting for it to break or die or something. So I mean. You know. Well and that's kind of why I bring up the discussion Jay because I think it's partly that these phones are so expensive and I know they want to point to that and I don't disagree that that relates.
[00:02:32] But I guess my opinion is it's only partly that the real point is why would I upgrade if I don't need to his points right. There's not a whole lot in the new phones. Now I know they have faster chips. I know they have better cameras. I'm not saying there's no advancement whatsoever. Right. But in my mind there's not solid significant advancement that would justify just upgrading all the time. There's not. I agree. There's no killer app. There's no like oh my gosh. You know they talked about maybe they'll still happen September.
[00:03:02] iPhone will roll out a fold or something. But you know they're also talking about it might be $2,000, $3,000 if they do. I don't know that people are ready to drop that much. I mean I don't even drop that much for a high-end laptop. You know for a day-to-day driver. So it'd be hard to justify. Well and why can I get a laptop or even one of these mini PCs that has way more functionality and features way cheaper than I can get a phone for? I don't know. I mean I guess you're not paying for a screen and the compact.
[00:03:31] In a laptop I am. Yeah. That's true. In fact in a laptop I'm paying for a way bigger screen. Right. Good point. Now you say well Sam it's not as rough and tumbling. It's really hard to get those electronics in the tiny you know form factor and stuff. Okay I get it to some degree. Points to that. But then why are these mini PCs in a small form factor cheaper than some of the bigger desktop tower machines then? I don't know. I think that you know just cost of scale and I think they're turning out a lot of them.
[00:04:00] And it's also where you look. You know you got to know where to look. Amazon isn't just your go-to place. You can find good deals on there but you got to know what you're doing. You got to know what you're looking for. And they're kind of a needle in a haystack sometimes. We find them sometimes and buy them. But you know it's if you're not really savvy in the in the tech world it's not an easy thing to just find. They're kind of gems when you do find them. There you have it. Anyway I just find it very interesting indeed and worth discussing.
[00:04:30] I think what I what I really would like to see and this is why I spend the time. Hopefully there'll be some feedback that somebody might listen to and take Jay. But what I really think we need to do is we need to make AI built into your cell phone in a meaningful way. I've got the later iPhone 17 or whatever it is. I've got a basic version so it doesn't have the extra cameras and stuff but it's still the the latest OS and the latest phone. Right. And it's good but they haven't advanced anything really. They've got limited AI in it.
[00:04:59] You can install chat dbt and talk to chat dbt through Siri. So there's a couple of advancements that are cool. Is it better than Alexa? Alexa? Oh the chat dbt by far. No I mean the Siri on the iPhone. But the Siri. No the Siri is not any better than it was on my 13. Oh okay. That's my point is that we have not expanded Siri. Siri should be competing with some of these other systems. It's pretty lucky. The other issue is this. The maps from Google and the maps from Apple. Everybody hates the maps. They're getting worse not better.
[00:05:29] I don't understand how they get worse but they do. They give you bogus directions places. You would think they'd be better and better with Waymo driving around and all these different things that could increase maps. And people traveling places and getting to the wrong place. And I mean you would think that the maps would continue. But everybody says you know for example my wife says I love the look of the Apple maps better. And people say yeah that's true but the Google maps you know get you better more places. But people say I hate the way the Google maps display and everything else. But there's no great map app.
[00:05:59] And you would think it's been around for what? How long have we been using? Maps? I'm not sure what to call it. Into the 90s. Well maps but more driving instructions right? Yeah. But more that more it used to be a Garmin right? You used to have a hardware device for it. Now it's on your phone. So the whole point of direction capabilities tied to maps has been around 30 years Jay? At least yeah. I remember in the mid 90s printing out directions from MapQuest you know. Right but I'm talking about the modern day Garmin forward stuff.
[00:06:29] Even Garmin's by then by the late 90s for sure yeah. Okay. And so I'm saying how come it's not a lot better? I don't know. It should be better I think. And I think it probably is. I mean certainly it's better than it was. But we just think like you look at the scale of processors right? Maps hasn't really kept up with Moore's Law so to speak right? Well and I don't even know that it's better enough to be significant though. Right?
[00:06:57] Now I literally you know check a restaurant near me or a store near me and then I drive straight to it because it's right there. Then I find out it's been closed for two years. Or I find out that it's not even the same restaurant anymore. Google is pretty good about keeping that up to date. Apple maybe not as much but I use Apple Maps. It's the default you know so that's what you end up doing. Which look do you like better? I would say Apple Maps just more out of familiarity than the look. I think they're both adequate.
[00:07:29] Anyway I bring it up because I know this. It's frustrating. And then you get a few of these other apps that are unique that compete. I can't remember what they're called right now. And they're better at like traffic jams. You're thinking of Waze. Yeah Waze. But Waze just had a big announcement. Actually it was kind of an under the radar announcement. And people are making a big deal about it. But they just passed a thing that said all disputes and everything else is going to be handled in Israel. You've got to take it to Tel Aviv if you have a problem with it. Because it's an Israeli app. And a lot of people are just going whoa I'm not doing this. I'm backing out. I'm uninstalling Waze.
[00:07:58] We didn't realize this or whatever. But somehow even though they were bought by Google or whatever. They continue to keep their headquarters in Israel. And so all legal disputes. It's kind of like how TikTok has been worked out. Nothing's really changed with TikTok much has it? I don't think so. Not on the surface. Well and whether it's ownership is taken. You know I don't know. Donald was going to go ahead and Donald averted that. And just circumvented Congress and everything else. And now I don't even know what's happening with TikTok. It's kind of been on the down low isn't it?
[00:08:28] But you think the Chinese don't have a handle on that still? No. I think that it's. They just gave it up and turned it over to the Americans? It's kind of a shell game it seems like on the surface right? Yeah. And the same thing is true. So you know there's not any great map apps. But I think that's one of the in my opinion killer apps for your phone. Is to be able to have just great directions. And as society grows and things get bigger. Unless you live in a really small town. It's very hard to keep up with all the construction. And all the changes and everything that happens. If I drive you know 40 miles from my house. A place that I don't go very often.
[00:08:58] Directions are really valuable. Yeah. So I don't I don't see that that's really improved much. I don't see that AI on the phones have improved much. It's put it. It's added. It's touted as this marketing hype. But it's really clunky to use. It's not usable. Now I will give them that they have better pictures than they've always had. It's easier to take pictures. And your pictures look good at night and some things. So there's some advancements. But then they also move forward to some very strange formats that other systems don't support. Right. And incompatibilities are a problem that they should be solving.
[00:09:27] And you know if they really want us to start buying newer phones. Yeah you got to make the components cheaper. But you've also got to start to give me something that I want and need. And you've got to advance things that you've given us already. If you give me Siri as an assistant. And that assistant isn't any better 10 years later. 15 years later. I'm kind of thinking what value is it. Other systems have already you know surpassed it big time. Well and I don't think that you know maybe Google has improved. I don't have an Android. I don't use one day to day.
[00:09:56] You know so maybe Gemini or whatever they run on on Android has gotten better or gotten more AI. But I don't if it is it isn't making headlines you know. Well and if it is way better and stuff like that. I mean when I sit with people that have Androids they don't just mock me because their system's awesome and mine's not. I mean they've got some pros and I've got some pros and we can debate about it. And I'm not really. Yeah but it seems like sixes. Yeah it seems like sixes. I'm not really loyal to one phone manufacturer necessarily.
[00:10:24] The reason I use the iPhone is because they claim it's better with screen you know reader access for me. And so that's why I stick with it. The reason I use it is because they claim it's more secure. Like iOS is supposed to be the most secure operating system on the planet. Well and hopefully that remains true but I don't know if it will or not. Now Apple just surpassed NVIDIA as the most valuable company in the world right? I hadn't heard that. I know they've been jockeying for place so that doesn't surprise me. Well Elon Musk not far behind Jay.
[00:10:53] Musk quietly buys what is it $1 billion power? $1 billion. Flora? Yeah. So he purchased Jacksonville based APR Energy federal filing shows in a deal worth at least $1 billion. The Federal Trade Commission notes or notice lists Musk as the buyer of new APR Energy LLC. They deploy mobile gas and diesel turbine plants that can be installed in days. Powering data centers, utilities worldwide even if there's blackouts and problems like that.
[00:11:24] Duo's technology disclosed $50.4 million in proceeds from its 5% stake implying the deal's value. Which is how they're getting to the billion dollar number. And the purchase adds a power generating arm alongside of Tesla's energy division and XAI whose data centers run on gas turbines sometimes. So I think that's why he's positioning this is so he's got instantly deployable gas turbines anywhere that he needs power. And I think it's pretty smart.
[00:11:51] It's interesting though and it kind of went under the radar a little bit. Well and I think he's really smart because I think the choke point is going to be memory. There's all kinds of down stocks on computer chip people not being able to deliver what people want. And that's a big deal too Jay. And so you know anytime you can put yourself in a prime position which he's done. You know it's going to give him a leg up. It's going to give the what is it X1.
[00:12:21] I don't know what you want to call it. Rocket company slash X. Space X. Twitter slash Grok. Isn't that what they call that one? Yep. Grok in a very powerful position folks. It really is. Right now it's kind of been falling behind along with Gemini and others. But things are a changing. We'll keep an eye on it. You're watching Tech Watch. We keep an eye on tech so you don't have to. Cybercrime is exploding.
[00:12:50] Take Sarah from Sweet Delights whose world crumbled after having to close with not being able to bounce back. Small businesses are prime targets. But the right strategies can keep yours safe. Jay Hill, CEO of Network Providers, has co-authored The Cyber Playbook Simplifies Cybersecurity for Business Owners with Strategies to Avoid Costly Breaches and Fines. Build a strong cyber attack response. Secure your business with key protections.
[00:13:19] Cyber threats aren't slowing down, but you can stay ahead. Protect your business. Ensure its security for tomorrow. Get the Cyber Playbook today at NetworkProvidersINC.com slash cyber dash playbook or call 385-446-5500 now. Looking for an IT partner that truly understands your needs?
[00:13:49] Managed IT services is the answer. We meet with you regularly to discuss your goals and form a tailored technology plan. Our customers have called us a trusted advisor who delivers. When it comes to IT, we do it all. Firewalls, cloud storage, server migration, and more. Say goodbye to long-term contracts and hello to a team that earns your business month after month. Call 801-706-6980 now and let managed IT services transform your IT experience.
[00:14:24] All right, ladies and gentlemen, we want to throw out a weekly reminder. Use a password manager. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't want to submit your credentials to the wrong site, Jay. No, you do not. And in fact, there's going around a new scheme where people are trying to – they're always doing this, trying to hack your thing. But what it is, it's a fake job interview. They'll add it to your Google Calendar with a bogus link. And if you click on it and you go to sign up, it'll ask you for your Google credentials.
[00:14:54] And you put them in there and it's really going to somebody else. And there's a couple ways to prevent this. Number one is use a password manager. That's the recommendation here or the takeaway. But also, if people are putting events on your calendar that you're not really approving or whatever, there's a setting in Google Calendar where you can say two options. I think they've actually changed this from the default. But the default used to be anybody could add something to your calendar. But now they've made it to where it emails you and you have to accept it first, which is a good idea.
[00:15:22] There's also one where you could even tighten it down more than that and say, only people that are in my contacts. Nobody else can add anything to my calendar. Yeah. Anyway, they're just making it more difficult to live life because of scams and scandals and everything else. Well, the reason that this job thing is such a critical deal because the average person is like, well, I'm not looking for a job. It's fine. But there's a lot of people looking for jobs now with the AI layoffs and everything else going on in tech. Microsoft is eliminating 4,800 jobs. That's right. That's 2.1% of its workforce day.
[00:15:51] That's right. In their Xbox division, they're laying off people. They're losing roughly one-fifth of their staff and four gaming studios spinning off out of the company as people develop. And it's kind of interesting. And I'm sure they're blaming that on AI. It's the easy out, right? But there's a lot of development going on. There you have it. All right, folks. You think that WordPad or whatever? Notepad. Is it WordPad or Notepad? Notepad. You think Notepad's getting bloated?
[00:16:19] Now, Notepad, interestingly enough, in the last couple of iterations of Microsoft updates, they've really changed Notepad. And I hate it. They made it multi-tab. They made it got AI support. And they've taken away the whole purpose Notepad existed. I don't know why they don't just add that stuff to Word. And then you've got WordPad in the middle. And I don't know why they do all this to Notepad, which was a basic editor and really neat to have for simplicity. Now they've destroyed it. Well, now we've got an answer, Jay. Yeah.
[00:16:47] I don't know why they took out WordPad, which was more of like a rich text editor, you know, a little bit of format and kind of a very simple Microsoft Office. I think they took it out so they could promote Office more. But WordPad did that sort of stuff. And that's where that thing should be as far as tabs, interfaces, and AI, and a spell check and stuff like this. Notepad is supposed to be a very simple text-only editor for editing INI files or doing things like that that you need to do. And they've really bloated it up. But we've got a cool video about it.
[00:17:16] And this guy, Zach Shutt, he has a great channel on TikTok and, you know, all the different things. But he has a good piece about it. We'll listen to this. A former Microsoft engineer rebuilt Notepad into two and a half kilobytes. What is going on? Notepad used to be the simplest program on Windows. It was a blank box. You would type in it. You'd save. And that was literally it.
[00:17:37] And then Microsoft crammed in tabs, spell check, a Microsoft account login, and co-pilot an AI in a text editor, which immediately turned into a security hole. So Dave Plummer, who is legendary, by the way, I love his channel, the guy who built the original Windows task manager, said enough is enough and rebuilt Notepad himself. No AI, no account, no bloat, literally two and a half kilobytes. By the way, that's smaller than the icon that Microsoft uses for Notepad. That's the point.
[00:18:06] A Microsoft veteran just proved the thing that Microsoft has spent years stuffing with features never needed a single one of them. And you know what? Here's the part that's actually useful. His version is free. It's on GitHub right now. And it opens the instant that you tap it. But if you'd rather keep the normal Notepad, you can turn off the AI yourself. Microsoft went and buried the setting after the backlash, but it is in there. Because nothing that you type in a plain text box needs a chat bot reading over your... There you have it. Exactly.
[00:18:35] All I can tell you is that brilliant, and this just goes to show too in my mind, that this plumber gentleman, and I commend him, we can write tight, good, clean, simple software that's not bloated, that's not tied into the operating systems to where when one thing breaks, another thing breaks. And I mean, what a brilliant deal, Jay. Yeah. And the joke, hey, it's smaller than the icon. He's right. That's amazing, isn't it? It's smaller than the icon for the current Windows Notepad.
[00:19:04] It makes me think that Steve Gibson wrote it. Yeah, right. In assembly language or something. I don't know what he wrote it in, but to get it that small is incredible, and I commend him. And it's very hard to write. So this is the guy who used to work for Microsoft. He wrote the Windows Task Manager, so he knows what he's doing. He's certainly a coder. He's an older guy. But, you know, he's one of those guys that we're losing too many of nowadays. Did you get the program? I have not downloaded it, no. All right. Well, download it, and we'll play with it, and then we'll report on our findings. I do. I want to check it out.
[00:19:33] There is a setting, though, in the current Notepad, which I do on almost every computer that I'm on. You can go in there, and you can turn off how it's saved. It's kind of weird how they phrase it. Where do I go? I'm in Notepad, buddy. We'll do it. I don't have it right in front of you because I'm actually on a Windows 10 computer. Are you Windows 11, Sam, right? Yeah, it's all complex. You've got to get rid of Windows 10, buddy. It's been gone. No. They just extended the security update, so they just said another year we're going to do security if you're on the ESU plan, which I am. So I've got Windows 2. I don't even know what ESU means, man.
[00:20:02] It sounds like a university. Extended service updates, I think, is what it stands for. Why are we on extended? Because we're on Windows 10. How do I change this stupid thing? Look at the gear icon. I don't know if you can get to that. I don't know what a gear icon is, buddy. I don't need that. In the top right. I know that you use tabs and stuff. But anyway, you go there and you look for, it's like how Windows saves and closes files. And you want to set it to just close it and don't open up new tabs. And then it will behave like the older Notepad.
[00:20:32] It's pretty simple. All right. Well, I'll have to study to find out where all that is. I'll help you with it after the show. All right. Anyway, I'm just saying, folks, think about that. It's just crazy. Now, I got good news, though. A paralyzed man. And I didn't get time to get this story to you. I just saw it at the last second, Jay. But it was so cool, I wanted to bring it up. Nice. A paralyzed man regains touch and hand controls through breakthrough brain-computer interface. This is pretty cool.
[00:20:57] A new study published in Nature Medicine reports that a, let me see if I say this right, a double neuro bypass system combined an implanted brain electrodes system with a non-invasive electrical stimulation restored meaningful hand movement for him. He's getting wet wire.
[00:21:27] Gave him some strength. Gave him some dexterity. Even the sense of touch. He could feel things, Jay. It was a man with complete, how do you say it? Touch-a-legia? Anyway, after 35 weeks of therapy, Keith Thomas gained enough function to perform everyday tasks, such as, you know, scratch his face, lifting up objects.
[00:21:56] Gain of function. They say that brain-computer interfaces can make this happen. Does that make him a cyborg, Sam? I don't know how to answer that, but I would say it borders. I don't know. It's weird. And I'll tell you why it's weird. Because to be a cyborg, to be a computer, I don't support, right? Yeah. At the same time, I can't say that I don't support this ability for this guy to be able to do this now. Right.
[00:22:24] What if they all of a sudden gave me the ability to see that way? Yeah. Would that make me a cyborg? It might. You'd be like, you know, 2% or something, right? You'd be certainly in there. I mean, it depends on how invasive it is, I guess. I don't know how you even measure that. Well, and I don't know how you know when the line's crossed. Right. In other words, if it's for strange purposes, like I want to live forever or I want to rule the world or I want to be some mastermind or whatever, then it's easy to go, okay, that's crazy.
[00:22:54] But at the same time, if you're doing it. It is right now, but you might not be in a couple of decades. Well, maybe. Maybe. But if I use it because I say I just need dexterity in my hands or I need to be able to see, it changes the discussion, though. I'm not trying to play God or I'm not trying to become more somehow in charge or more authority than everybody else or some weird other element. I'm just simply saying, hey, if they can make me see, why wouldn't I see? And that's more of an augmentation to restore abilities, right? It's not. Yeah, exactly. You're not getting superpowers or something crazy.
[00:23:24] Yeah. So this guy's not the bionic man. But he could just lift stuff now, at least. So I don't know. It's very strange. And this is kind of how we'll be lulled into this. And I guess my only point would be, and I'm not trying to make this a religious or a political show, but my main point would be, hey, as long as you're not really trying to play God or become something that you're not with it, you're just trying to have a better life or quality of life discussion. Like this guy being able to scratch his face.
[00:23:53] How would it be to not be able to scratch your face if you itch, Jay? I don't know. That'd be weird. So I'm just saying, you can't blame the guy to want to be able to do that, right? Yeah. That's what I think NASA has to deal with when they're doing a spacewalk. You know, what if your nose itches? Well, that's what Elon Musk is working on in his, you know, I don't know that he, I don't think he was involved in this example, but he has a lot of technology that's similar to this, right? Oh, yeah. He's doing that. He's got people that are volunteering to get wet wired in the brain, like, you know, add USB jacks and everything.
[00:24:23] I think they ought to at least make sure it's a USB-C if they're going to do that, Jay. They definitely, we want to be backwards compatible on that. What happens when a USB-D comes out? I don't know. You have to get an upgrade. You have to upgrade your jack in your brain. Sounds jacked up to me. You got to pay for the subscription, probably. Oh, no. All right, ladies and gentlemen, there's another tech watch. Thanks so much for being alongside with the ride.