25 Burst results for "Walter Isaacson"
Bloomberg Radio New York
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Flat. All right, Charlie, thanks so much. Well, we mentioned that Apple shares are trading higher today. We also mentioned a story on the Bloomberg about how more analysts covering Apple are cutting their share price forecasts, signaling, growing concerns about an economic slowdown that could hurt the sales of its products, meaning that maybe there could be some slowdown in some of their metrics. But our mark kerman also has another story on maybe a side of the business that could help propel the top line growth and bottom line growth. And that's out of the business of being healthcare. Mark gurman is technology reporter for Bloomberg news. He joins us on the phone from LA. Mark, whenever I see Apple and healthcare, I think back to the Walter isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, because over ten years ago, before Steve Jobs died, he told Walter isaacson that healthcare was an area that needed to be needed to be disrupted is as Apple finally doing that. Well, he also told Walter isaacson that TV is also an area that needs disruption. Good point. Everyone but Apple successfully do that. But to your point, apple put out a 59 page report today outlining basically everything it's done in health. So the first four pages sort of give you a high level overview of what they've done, what features the phone, et cetera, have health related and fitness related, of course. And then every other they use to detail the exact speed. It's like they put out this war and peace size guide to everything they've ever done, basically saying, hey, look at all the stuff we've done in health. Anyone who we haven't done something well, if you think you just read this and you can tell you that you're wrong. At the same time, there is concerns if they've done enough. If they've done the right stuff, if they've done impactful things, right? So there is a discussion to be had there. All right, so help me out. If I go through the balance sheet of Apple, is there a breakdown when it comes to healthcare and how they've been able to monetize it? Nope. I know my sarcasm. Yeah, I know I know you were being sarcastic. Visually, for anything health related, right? Those features are bundled into the costs. I guess you can say into the iPhone and into the Apple watch. There's no health related subscription. They do however have fitness plots, which is their, I believe, $5 a month fitness service that you get on the Apple TV, the phone on the iPad, the Mac. Actually, I don't know if they have it. They don't have it on the Mac. On most Apple devices. And that's they charge for obviously so they make some money there. Certainly not their most popular service, but it's certainly working. I would say it probably makes them, I don't know, half a billion, $750 million a quarter. So that's still nice. But no, nothing on the balance sheet on health. One Mark, when I think about Apple and it's four a into healthcare thus far, I often think back to the marketing that the company's done about with regard to privacy and the idea of what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone. And I'm wondering to what extent you think that those two things are related, we're going to be more likely to give Apple our data about our bodies if we trust the company. I think it's a chicken and the egg thing, right? What comes first? Was it that Apple started doing all these things? And then they needed to have this privacy angle to make people trust it or did they start with the privacy angle and see what look at all the things we could do if we haven't trusted consumers. It doesn't really matter, but I think in this current day and age with everything going on, roe V wade, and people other people and concerns about government intervention and people's devices. I think the privacy standpoint is critical to apple's health efforts. At the same time, you walk into a Duane Reade or CVS or what have you and there's tons of blood pressure monitors, there's all different types of monitors. I mean, it's a big industry, and I do think in some way, wouldn't it be nice to have perhaps an Apple device that can measure so many different things, especially for an aging population where I'll get an older here in the United States. It's a huge market to have a device that increasingly, you know, doctors want to see some kind of trend report when it comes to really important health metrics. I don't know the answer to this question, but I would say that it's probably a smaller than expected number. How many people do you think take their blood pressure once a week? How many people do you think check their glucose? My dad did every day, but that was an older population. But I'm wondering though, Mark, what if you didn't have to actually take the time to do those things? What is your iPhone? Did those things for you just in the background? That's my point. So there's really three sensors that you want on an Apple watch to really make this thing a real game sector. You want to a temperature reader? Do you know your temperature? You want a glucose reader? And you want a blood pressure, right? You also wanted to cure illnesses, but that's never happened, right? But you want those three those three sensors. And phase one, if that's going to happen this year, where they add body temperature, they'll advance that and improve that in the coming years. I think for years from now, actually, I reported this already. They're trying to do blood pressure in 2024, 2025. And then I think you'll see glucose by the end of the decade. And so I think by the end of the decade, 8 years from now, you'll really want to get everything you pretty much want from a health perspective on the Apple watch. All right, so are they major force in the healthcare world? I know your headline or the headline or your story says that are they? Are they? They are in the sense that they have done more than all these tech companies from a consumer standpoint. But if you look at Amazon, they have their healthcare clinics, right? They also have their pharmacy business online and their pill pack competitor and all that there too, right? So Apple has a long ways to go. And I think that certainly there's more to do. But if they are able to get those three sensors nailed on the Apple watch, I think they're the winner here, especially for tech company perspective. So glad we had time. Are you had time for us marker? And thank you so much. Technology reporter at Bloomberg news on the phone from LA. All right, we got some breaking news here, forward planning to cut as many as 8000 jobs in the coming weeks, shares of forge still higher by about half a percentage point. Our reporting showing that staff reductions target salary jobs, people familiar with the situation say, the cuts to come primarily in unit making gas powered vehicles, remember Carol they did that separation of the traditional Ford internal combustion and then the EV unit. And the company's CEO, I mean a boost profitability amid a push into that ED market. Ford not commenting on the speculation, but it does talk about the shift to alternative fuel and alternative fuel vehicles. Tim's did mention shares of Ford or higher, but they're definitely off their best levels of the session still up about 6 tons of a percent, but we're seeing a little bit of a dip on that news. You are listening and watching Bloomberg businessweek on this Wednesday,
The 3:59
"walter isaacson" Discussed on The 3:59
"And <Speech_Male> then so it kind of helped. <Speech_Male> But also <Speech_Male> when we talk <Speech_Male> about you start <Speech_Male> looking down <Speech_Male> stories we've written on CNET <Speech_Male> about CRISPR <Speech_Male> and all of these other <Speech_Male> technologies that are coming <Speech_Male> out of <Speech_Male> very similar <Speech_Male> ideas. <Speech_Male> It's potentially <Speech_Male> could change the way <Speech_Male> we think of <Speech_Male> biology and <Speech_Male> medicine. And <Speech_Male> that is amazing. <Speech_Male> So <Speech_Male> Walter isaacson thinks <Speech_Male> that biotechnology <Speech_Male> will be the next <Speech_Male> wow <Speech_Male> moment. <Speech_Male> And arguably there <Speech_Male> are a bunch of other places <Silence> as well, but that was <Speech_Male> his perspective. <Speech_Male> And <Speech_Male> in the article, you also mentioned <Speech_Male> meta <Speech_Male> CEO Mark Zuckerberg. <Speech_Male> Obviously, <Speech_Male> he is really <Speech_Male> pushing for the virtual <Speech_Male> augmented reality, <Speech_Male> the metaverse. <Speech_Male> And he spoke <Speech_Male> with someone who <Speech_Male> works in that sector. <Speech_Male> And they <Speech_Male> think that this is going <Speech_Male> to be <Speech_Male> the gateway to <Speech_Male> the iPhone <SpeakerChange> moment. <Speech_Male> The next one? <Speech_Male> Yes, <Speech_Male> so one of the things <Speech_Male> I thought was <Speech_Male> interesting is that, <Speech_Male> you know, as we're <Speech_Male> talking about this <Speech_Male> kind of <Speech_Male> revelatory <Speech_Male> moment, <Speech_Male> one of the things going <Speech_Male> on in the tech industry <Speech_Male> is <Speech_Male> Mark Zuckerberg <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> really believes <Speech_Male> that AR <Speech_Male> and VR <SpeakerChange> are going to be <Speech_Male> it. And he is putting <Speech_Male> billions <Speech_Male> and billions <SpeakerChange> and <Speech_Male> billions and billions <Speech_Male> of dollars toward <Speech_Male> development of it. <Speech_Male> And he's been trying <Speech_Male> now. I mean, look, <Speech_Male> he bought Oculus <Speech_Male> VR, <Speech_Male> the startup. <Speech_Male> He bought it <Speech_Male> back in 2014. <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> That is <Speech_Male> a long time ago <Speech_Male> now. <Speech_Male> The original Oculus <Speech_Male> VR headset <Speech_Male> came out in 2016, <Speech_Male> the <Speech_Male> consumer version. <Speech_Male> So we've had <Speech_Male> quite a while. And <Speech_Male> it still hasn't picked <Speech_Male> up the way he <Speech_Male> wanted it to. <Speech_Male> But a lot of the <Speech_Male> anecdotal stories <Speech_Male> inside of <Speech_Male> Facebook are that he <Speech_Male> believes <Speech_Male> this is going to be the <Speech_Male> next smartphone like moment. <Speech_Male> And he doesn't <SpeakerChange> want to miss <Speech_Male> it. So <Speech_Male> what's interesting is <Speech_Male> that <Speech_Male> even if we think about <Speech_Male> all of that and <Speech_Male> his kind of inability <Speech_Male> to force <Speech_Male> that aha <Speech_Male> moment, right? <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> One of the things that <Speech_Male> a person who <Speech_Male> works in this industry <Speech_Male> told me was, <Speech_Male> look, you know, <Speech_Male> there's also a possibility <Speech_Male> that a lot <Speech_Male> of this technology <Speech_Male> we're developing <Speech_Male> is really <Speech_Male> on the way to <Speech_Male> whatever supplants <Speech_Male> the iPhone, right? Maybe <Speech_Male> it won't be AR <Speech_Male> VR <Speech_Male> that ends up supplanting <Speech_Male> it and arguably if <Speech_Male> you're a Star Trek nerd, <Speech_Male> you may remember <Speech_Male> they have little phones <Speech_Male> in their hands all the <Speech_Male> time, right? They've got the <Speech_Male> tricorders and all that <Speech_Male> stuff. We're not that far <Speech_Male> from having it <Speech_Male> already. So <Speech_Male> arguably sci-fi <Speech_Male> says we may never get <Speech_Male> rid of the iPhone. But <Speech_Male> <Speech_Male> he believes <Speech_Male> that whatever <Speech_Male> supplants the iPhone <Speech_Male> <SpeakerChange> <Speech_Male> probably uses a lot <Speech_Male> of the technology that AR <Speech_Male> and VR are <Speech_Male> developing. <Speech_Male> And so in a lot <Speech_Male> of ways, that's pretty <Speech_Male> cool too, right? You could <Speech_Male> argue we're halfway <Speech_Male> to the <Speech_Male> next wow <Speech_Male> moment. But <Speech_Male> honestly, nobody <Speech_Male> knows. And I think <Speech_Male> that's the most fascinating <Speech_Male> part <Speech_Male> about all of <Speech_Male> this is that <Speech_Male> we really <Speech_Male> aren't going to know <Speech_Male> until <Speech_Male> way afterward, <Speech_Male> whether we're in <Speech_Male> one of these <SpeakerChange> moments. And <Speech_Male> that's pretty cool. <Speech_Male> All right. <Speech_Male> Well, thank you, <Speech_Male> Ian for your time. You <Speech_Male> can check out his stories
Squawk Pod
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Not wearing masks, I think if a person is worried they should put on a tight fitting N95. Cheese will be next. Up next, Elon Musk putting together the cash to buy Twitter. It really wants to make money on it. No, not for money. For what? Power. And we asked the guy who's working with Elon Musk to write the book on Elon Musk. That would be Walter isaacson, on where all the tweets, the cash and the motivation are coming from. I thank in terms of free speech rights, Musk is on the side of more free speech. I think that he would call himself a centrist. Squawk pod will be right back. I'm Scott Wapner, when the closing bell rings, we're just getting started. Closing bell overtime is your destination for late breaking news, and after hours action, we're tackling each trading day with actionable advice from some of the biggest names on the street. Follow and listen to CNBC's closing bell podcast today. Welcome back to squawk pod. I'm producer Cameron Costa and yep, we're still obsessed with the Elon Musk Twitter soap opera. Now the latest in the fight over the future of Twitter as the world turns, private equity firm Apollo global management is held talks now about financing a potential takeover of the social media company that's according to sources familiar with the matter, but they said that Apollo isn't interested in being part of a consortium that would acquire the company itself. One source saying that any financing Apollo provides would likely come in the form of preferred equity effectively backing and using I imagine Twitter and Elon Musk's own stock as collateral in such a transaction. It's pretty cool. Perfect fascinating. What's going on? People circling, circling around in the word is Elon's been approached by probably some of the people he thought. He might be a promotion by to give him help. I also imagine there's going to be people who are going to go straight to Twitter though, meaning and approach them directly. Exactly. And whether there's going to be individuals. I didn't even say that Apollo could be with Elon or completely not with you. I don't know. It could be with who knows. I don't think you might make some calls and get some insight on how that might work. It's interesting because a guy with 5 billion, we would think is pretty well. If you would think it's pretty well off. But he couldn't approach Twitter, but a guy with two 50, even though he's cash poor with 250 billion, even though it's stock and even though the stock could go from a thousand to who knows. It could go to 5000. It could go to less, less than a thousand. But it's still two 50 right now. So he can come up with it. He could come up with it. Why he would want to do it for the rest of us. For the Festivus, Festivus is for the rest of us. Remember that. Well, the question is, is he doing it for the rest of us? Yeah. He is. In my view, Andrew, this is another, yes. To stop with what we've seen. I mean, the way that social media has picked us aside. What do you think that anybody who wants to buy a company like that who says it really wants to make money on it? No, not for money. No, for what? Power. Influence. Oh, you don't think that he doesn't even own a home. He lives with friends. Do you think this is just philanthropic effort? Yes. And.
Mac Power Users
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Mac Power Users
"That Apple hardware just it lasts a long time. And that's important from all sorts of perspectives. But what the iPhone in particular means that you can yeah, it's a big purchase and it's an expensive device, but you're going to get years and years out of it. Yeah, I mean, it's going to take 5 or ten years to prove my hypothesis, but I think putting the Apple system on a chip in the Mac is going to mean the max room even longer than they did it before. And because that's what you see on the iPhone and the iPad effect is a problem on the iPad because people buy them and it was on this show I was talking about my friend who has the iPad two maybe, I think so. I have too many podcasts. I'll tell the story really real quick. A friend of mine's wife has an iPad too, and I tell them to buy her an upgrade and she was listening because I was on speakerphone. And she jumped in and she's like, no, I love this iPad. I don't want a new one. I don't want to set up a new one. This is great. This is the iPad two. This is the one that Steve Jobs was showing to Walter isaacson when he was writing the biography of Steve Jobs, right? What is it like ten years old now? She loves it. She doesn't want a new one. That is crazy, right? Okay, so iPhone. What about the software side? This is where this is where I said this is a tough, a tough chapter in the show, because iOS is so mature at this point. The low hanging fruit I think is sort of a hard list to come by. I think that the core thing for me, I would like to see Apple address in iOS. I still think the share sheet is to uneven across applications. And I think it's still confusing to users that, okay, well, I have this list of apps that scroll horizontally, but then I also have this list of actions that scrolls vertically and sometimes things are in both places and sometimes they're not and mail doesn't have a share sheet. I think a lot of that inner app communication look, a lot of that's up to third parties, a lot of that's out of apple's control, but Apple I think should continue to model how that should work for third party developers. Yeah, and I think this is another one that would benefit from a decompression of the interface. Stop trying to put so much in so little space. It's okay. And it doesn't. And the same argument I made earlier about Apple mail on the Mac applies equally on iPhone. And they haven't this isn't something where they've totally ignored their native apps. Apple notes has gone through a transformation. I think reminders is in the midst of a transformation and it's becoming a very good app, but I would like to see them just get whatever the roadblock is to doing that to all of the native Apple apps. I would like that to get removed and that's something I would do. The other thing that really concerns me about the iPhone in terms of software is the general state of the App Store. And I feel like Apple has not at least publicly taken this series enough. This past year we saw multiple events where someone would make a successful app. I mean, it happened to our friend Dave Smith. When he made widget Smith, there were like a bunch of copycat apps that used his basic icon and name. And they were trying to divert or defraud people to buy their crappy app instead of the thing he had spent months working on. And the only reason it seems like it got handled because everybody raised such a stink about it publicly, but how many apps are in the App Store where they've got these copycats out there. And what's going on with search in the App Store, when I try to search for a specific name of an app, it doesn't even show up in the search results. But junk and garbage does instead. I feel like Apple took on an obligation when they said they're going to have this App Store where they review apps and make sure it's a safe environment. And I feel like they're not living up to it at least with all this copycat and garbage nonsense in the App Store. Yeah. There's more to talk about at the App Store. But that's coming in a later section of the show. Yeah. What do you think, you know, thinking about the future of the iPhone, we just did this with the Mac. What do you think? What do you think is on the horizon for this thing? Well, Apple has had the benefit of a silicon lead the whole time. Like, you know, if you look at the Snapdragon and some of the competing chips on other platforms, they just don't hold a candle to what the iPhone does. And I think Apple, you know, I don't think that they can count on that lead forever. So I think they need to be planning for what are the other features they're going to bring and how are they going to take more advantage of it? One of the encouraging signs I've seen is a speech to text dictation. I've been a fan of this since the Mac power users first started publishing. And I used to talk about dragon dictate and other options, but now apple's built in dictation is getting so good. And that's because of the silicone leak. And if you haven't tried it yet, lately, next time you want to send an email to somebody, hit that microphone button and just start talking and see how close it gets. So I want to see them do more with that. I want to see what they do with the cameras. I feel like we're running into physics with the existing width of phones. I don't think they're going to make how much thinner can the iPhone get without turning the camera into a piece of garbage and you know there's all these periscope technologies now where you can put the sensor like lower in the phone and then essentially use a periscope to get more physical distance between the lens and the sensor. But I want to see them, I want to see them head in that direction because I want the camera system to get even better at the same time that the phones continue to get refined. And this big bumps on the phones. I feel like in ten years, we're going to look back.
AP News Radio
Landrieu back in spotlight tackling infrastructure, equity
"Mitch Landrieu will be heading the task force coordinating more than a trillion dollars in federal infrastructure spending as mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu oversaw billions of dollars in infrastructure repairs when he took over the recovery from hurricane Katrina he's been out of the national spotlight since twenty eighteen although he was sometimes mentioned as a possible candidate for the democratic presidential nomination particularly after a speech supporting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee now the former Louisiana state lawmaker and lieutenant governor has been tapped by president Biden as the head coordinator of his infrastructure plan during a visit to Ohio with the vice president labor secretary Marty Walsh another former mayor says he'll be serving alongside Landrieu going to make sure that all of this money gets spent in the right way on high quality projects with American made materials there's political risk to a role managing billion dollar transportation projects Andrew Coughlin and former deputy mayor under Landrieu said his skill with logistics will be a strength in his new role Walter Isaacson the New Orleans born historian says lead you loves the geeky details of infrastructure and bringing people together Jennifer king Washington
Squawk Pod
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Washington news hurricane. Ida's destruction raising the pressure. On congress to pass an infrastructure bill illinois joins us right now with the full story on that good morning. Good morning becky oh. President biden had pointed to new orleans as the poster child for the need for infrastructure investment even before hurricane ida hit since then residents were told they had to boil their water. More than eight hundred forty thousand. People were still without electricity. As of last night and officials said it could take weeks to turn all the lights back on. So that is ramping up the pressure on local lawmakers to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill which could send billions of dollars to the big easy and across the gulf coast now. They're seventeen billion dollars for the army corps of engineers priority projects including two point. Six billion that's targeted at states like louisiana that repeatedly get hit by hurricanes. A twelve point. Five billion dollar federal funds dedicated to improving the reliability of transmission. Lines as over sixteen hundred. Miles were still out of service in louisiana and mississippi yesterday the lone democrat louisiana's congressional delegation congressman troy carter. He wants to use the infrastructure bill to rebuild the power grid the same way. The state rebuilt the levy system after hurricane katrina. Gop senator bill cassidy has also been urging his republican colleagues to support this bill. In the aftermath of ida but most of louisiana's congressional delegation has opposed it at least up till now now president biden will visit the state tomorrow to view the damage himself. And so guys we will see if he's able or if the hurricane is able to change any minds of the process back to you becky you on thank you. For more. on how president biden's infrastructure plan could help cities like new orleans in the face of natural disasters. Let's bring in walter isaacson. He's a resident of new orleans where he's a history professor at tulane university. He's also a cnbc. Contributor wears a lot of other hats to walter. It's great to see it this morning. Ready to be with you becky so let let's just start with what he was talking about it. What do you think about where infrastructure stands. you know. there's been a lot of over dramatization of what happened in the storm. In new orleans the levees whole held that was of great federal infrastructure project. After thousand eight hundred people got killed into trina here. You didn't have anybody killed by raging floodwaters. I think there was one auto death in new orleans for this whole thing. Why because there was no flooding. The federal levees held likewise. There hasn't been much property damage. I know it looks bad on. Tv but in the city itself electricity is now coming back on. And i think that what we've just talked about is right that you have to protect the electricity grid. That's next infrastructure project we have and that's not just for hurricanes that's when those storms at the northeast. That's when you have major snowstorms. We have a fragile electricity grid. I've been traveling around looking at tesla energy for something. I'm doing on ilan mosque. And i'm looking at how these power pack walls and decentralized electricity grids are coming online..
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Ninety four. He built america's largest power plants in chicago. A few years later insult became the president of commonwealth edison and created the country's largest utility. And what he realized. Is that if you wanna stay in business making electricity. What you need is a massive customer base that is going to use electricity twenty four hours a day. He had to actively seek manufacturing facilities. That would use electricity in the middle of the day It was this that insult understood. Not only that intial also needed to find a way to sell electricity at night into the working class. And oddly enough. It was the invention of a then novel kitchen appliance. That helped him do it. The electric refrigerator which is designed and marketed. Ferociously as a way of using electricity at nighttime otherwise you could just turn the system off and so the electric refrigerator then becomes an answer to the coal burning power plant. These two things are linked technologically in order to make a grid which is profitable and sensible for a company to row so he gave us the grid but he also gave us new tilleke system by the end of the nineteen twenties. Samuel insoles utilities serve more than four million customers in thirty two states and were valued at nearly three billion dollars for his business. Empire didn't survive the great depression but his business model endured bigger was better and rather than fight. Government regulation like most industry leaders at the time. Insul- welcomed it. Peter has so that was the other idea that unsal as you mentioned came up with the idea. Well this is like a public good. Doesn't make more sense to have monopolies and that's where there was that grand bargain life. Yes you can have monopolies. But you'll be totally regulated by state regulators and they will set your rates of return so we went started off with a totally competitive. Anyone bills your own power system. Sort of micro grid model to this large centralized bigger is better model. The grand bargain served america. Well for much of the twentieth century massive power plants generated all cheap electricity. a booming economy could use. But it wasn't built to last. The existing electric grid was built. You know fifty to one hundred years ago with one particular architecture in mind brian. Hannigan is president and ceo of holy cross energy a colorado based rural electric utility the grid than existed to take the power output from these large central power plants and distributed out to the areas where people were living in consuming power so as kind of like a one way interstate highway at along the transmission system and a set of side roads state highway system if you will for a distribution utility like holy cross to bring it to the homes and the businesses in the area and thou works really fine as long as your customers on. The receiving end are passive. And they don't really ask for much more than the lights on and the rates low and the proverbial warm shower and cold beer but once those consumers start actively generating their own power with solar on their rooftops or a wind in their communities. Then we start to have an issue were that one way distribution system that one way highway is now subject to two way traffic. It was announced today. The gas sunday will go into effect as of next month. The shift from a one way to a two way. Electrical grid began in the nineteen seventy. We're in an energy crisis now and will be for some time to come. All we can do is the opec oil embargo of nine thousand. Nine hundred. Seventy three caused a dramatic rise in the price of oil and although energy from renewable sources was still considerably more expensive than fossil fuels. The gap was beginning to narrow at the same time. Washington began unraveling the grand bargain by deregulating. The energy market for the first time utilities were required to pay a market price for electricity generated by their customers balki. So you could build a little dam on river at if you could prove that you made electricity of that damn for less money than the utility would have paid to make it. They were required by federal law to buy that electricity from you and this was a tiny crack. Tiny tiny tiny crack in the utility system. And it's that crack which has grown and grown and grown and grown and grown until today it seems perfectly normal to us that somebody could actually put solar panels on their roofs And make electricity and sell it back to the grid. So that was the shift in the nineteen seventies.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"I'm walter isaacson and you're listening to trail blazers an original podcast from dell technologies the energy here within this universe on this planet americal electricity plants constant quest for new ways to harness and make use of energy resources. Transmission mind is from mendes power former banks your energy charging through the atmosphere at your fingertips. Most americans don't think much about the electrical grid. We see the poles and wires that line our street but we don't think about the thousands of power plants the millions of miles of high voltage lines. And all the distribution transformers that make up the american electrical grid the fact that we don't think a lot about it is a sign of it's incredible success for more than a hundred years. The grid has been the backbone of american economic prosperity is reliably deliver electrcity to our homes factories and offices and that's a remarkable achievement because delivering electricity is a very tricky business. 'electricity is a force electromagnetic force. And that means that there isn't anything else like it in our world gretchen. Balki is the author of the book. The grid the fraying liars between americans and our energy future. It just doesn't do anything that anything else does. It doesn't run downhill. doesn't trickle out of an outlet like water would even though we tend to think of in terms of water. Another problem is that it's lethal so that means you can't touch it and there's also not so many things in our world that we interact with so intimately as we do with electricity that we can't actually ever come into contact with and there's another important quality of electricity that makes it different from just about any other product you can think of off can't save it up and use it later. The only place you can kind of control it is in how fast how much you make of it. But the second it's made it's delivered. It's very hard to imagine how we could have. I think thirty six thousand different utilities on a single grid delivering this thing that if you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and turn the light on the light actually goes on is just beyond conception that we do that but we do do it and we have been making that system work for over a century in fact the national academy of engineering name the electrical grid the greatest engineering achievement of the twentieth century. But the grid might never have been bill if it were not for two remarkable trailblazers who each had radically different ideas. About the future of electricity. There are few inventors more famous than thomas. Edison edison filed more than one thousand patents and is credited with inventing the phonograph the automatic telegraph and the carbon telephone just to name a few but without a doubt one device stand above the rest as his most well-known invented the incandescent lightbulb finding a way to generate and transmit electricity to those bulbs was a logical next step so in eighteen eighty two. He opened his first power plant on pearl street in new york city. The system that edison came up with was very very small. And so you made a usually with coal sometimes with river water. You made electricity and then you would send it at most about a mile and then if you wanted to do it further than that you then had to build a separate grid so if you wanted to move a streetcar you needed a particular grid and you had to keep extending that system with little more little coal. Fire power plants and what that meant. Is that this edison idea. It was great for something. Like lighting downtown's like a main street or lighting of brewery lighting. A rich man's house. These are the kinds of things that electricity was four in eighteen. Ninety s the electricity that at is generated was transmitted by a system known as direct current or dc but dc had its limitations inter. Edison's great rival. Nikola tesla tesla is an interesting character. He sort of like Was the original mad scientists. Peter asmus is the research director the consulting firm guide house insights pictures of tesla. He viewed electricity is like this magical substance. He wanted to be free and so he wasn't really a business man. Whereas edison was the flip side of that tesla got a job with edison machine works in eighteen eighty four. Shortly after arriving in america from croatia he worked on edison's dc generators but he never shared his bosses doozy azam for the technology back. Then the problem with dc is that it couldn't be transmitted over long distances and so it worked with these small micro grids but as people wanted more electricity and cities grew. It wasn't really compatible with that instead. Tesla believe the future lay in alternating current or acey unlike dc with a current runs at a constant voltage in only one direction. Ac could travel over long distances without losing much strength. This meant power. Plants could be larger fewer in number and cheaper dr array. Ac versus dc. The battle for electrical supremacy was on. It was a vicious deeply personal war that occasionally sank to the level of the absurd in order to demonstrate the dangers of ac edison stage public electrocutions of stray animals even arranged for alternating current to be used first time. A convicted murderer was put to death in the electric chair in the end. Ac simply made too much sets eventually won the current but there was still another piece of egocentricity puzzle that needed to be solved. People still didn't know how to make money selling electricity and here. Edison emerged victorious. He came up with the idea of charging per kilowatt hour basically per consumption. And that's the basis of of the modern electricity industry. In fact it was also addison who put meters in homes to monitor electricity use but in the eighteen ninety s only wealthy people had electricity in their homes and they only used it for a few hours a day in the evening. Addison struggled to figure out how to turn electricity into a profitable business. The change that mattered was understanding that you could sell electricity to poor people and make a profit gretchen. Balki says it was edison's chief. Engineer samuel insole who. I understood that. Electricity required economies of scale so in eighteen.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Imagine for a moment that you're writing the new york city subway on a hot summer day in two thousand and three then all of a sudden those lights and your train cargo out and the subway grinds to a reaching halt. The subway is packed with commuters. And you're stuck between stations underground. It's dr ten minutes then twenty. You start to hear the whispers of other passengers on the subway. It's been nearly two years since nine. Eleven and it's clear some people in your train can't help but think.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"We want actually to take a slice of their often noon digital time that slice of time where they're either watching youtube were playing shooting games etcetera and actually have them read. Books developed the love of reading play educational games so book full is meant to take part of that digital entertainment time and not part of the traditional reading time whether it's a baby formula or augmented reality kids books parents have and always will use technology to help raise their children. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be critical of the technology we used especially when it comes to parenting parenting and child development. Innovators of helped us. Adapt to linking village but technology will never be the answer to the question. How do i raise my child. Well if you think that the most important characteristics of a community you'll probably make a list of things like support encouragement wisdom respect and love. These were also the things parents need. Most as they figure out had raised their kids most of us will never live in a traditional village but as a world changes. It's important to remember that the village can change to. We just need a little help. B- building and is doctor. Spock said a bit of common sense to. I'm walter isaacson and you've been listening to trail blazers original podcast from dell technologies. If you'd like to learn more about any of the guests on today's show visit dell technologies dot com slash trailblazers. Thanks for listening..
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"To a certain extent imitates the experience of being in the womb. When caught became a pediatrician he developed a theory. he calls the fourth trimester. This is the idea that the first few months of life outside the womb. Babies need a little help transitioning to new sleep routines then about a decade ago. He found himself at a crossroads. As he toward the country giving lectures and presentations he began to realize that his advice wasn't making a big enough impact so one evening back in his hotel room after elektra he sketched his first prototype. Eventually become the world's first smart bassinet abend responds the babies and help soothe them to sleep in twenty fourteen. This new smart sleeper was born from the baby's point of view. They feel like they're in the womb. They're held and rock. They're cuddled in this special sleep sack and then they're gently rocked insurance all night long but when they fussed the bed recognizes that and it kind of jiggles them tristesse than louder As if you were having your baby in your arms and you were bouncing up and down and And if they continue crying because to another level and then yet another level to be able to settle them car understands that his new is there to assist parents. It's not meant to abdicate. Responsibility or replace essential child. Caregiver interactions is there to help. And that's key. The goal of snnu is not at all to be a bad. We don't even think of it as a baby bed. Snooze a caregiver snooze your older sister who came and said go to sleep. I'm going to hold a rock this baby all night long if the baby gets upset. Oh rockin trish more. And if i can't come the baby in a minute or two i'll i'll get you so snooze robotic caregiver. The goal is to be an assistant. The goal is to help you do your human job better just the way. You might use a vacuum cleaner or a hairdryer or a food mixer. You use technology to help you accomplish the tasks that you feel are valuable in terms of caring for your child. Studying the impact of his new sleeper in more than seventy five hospitals carpet and his team found that nurses saved almost two hours per shift in time usually spent soothing babies to sleep baby sleep on their own and have jove one to three hours per day longer than they did before studies show that babies and toddlers who did not get enough sleep or more likely to develop reading and language problems. Luckily there's a new technology helping parents assess and support child speech development after sleep. The next significant milestone for children is learning to talk. Baby start to babble and around six to nine months after which those spend the next couple of years. Acquiring language from their parents and other caregivers many missile go kherson. And i am the chief officer of research on evaluation ask lena. Lena is a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the opportunity gap for children. Learn to talk at different rates. Falling behind and speech development can often lead disadvantages in school affected child's emotional and social. Well being and this is a source of major stress for parents and teachers alike up until fifteen years ago. When lena was invented. The only way we could really know anything about a child's language environment was through observers in the or from very short like one hour audio recordings that required a lot of labor intensive transcription so it was clear we needed to know what was happening so we could instigate behavior change but there was no way to do it unless you could figure out a way to do it. Automatically lena stands for language. Environment analysis and their technology can automatically measure how often children engage in language with adults. They designed a state of the art recording device that fits inside the pocket of a child. Divest it captures all relevant data in a child's language and acoustic environment early on the analysis. Focus mostly on counting words but lena's researchers soon revealed that the real measure of language development is not only vocabulary. But what they call a conversational turn so a conversational turn is basically a count of the number of times apparent on child engaged back and forth so if a parent says something in a child responds It could be a babble or word but if they respond within five seconds that's counted as one turn and say the child says something on the apparent response within five seconds. That would be one back and forth or one conversational turn so we have found Through many years of research that conversational turns are much more. Predictive of development then are just looking at total number of adult words at the end of a long day. The data from the child's recording device is fed to lena's proprietary algorithm then compiles a list of detailed reports. That parents and teachers can use to adapt and improve the child's language environment. Sometimes it's as simple as reminding parents to take a few more minutes each day to talk and respond to their child. Gill kherson says parents and caregivers see the value. In lena's technology they embrace the data. And when you know when they saw it and they made the changes they really noticed. improved relationships and improve language ability. So that totally you know. Underscores and reinforces the importance of their work and their efforts. Today lena's programs reach more than ten thousand children and centers across the us including daycares schools and libraries. In the next three years yoga sin believes their reach will.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Of the time predictably does not resonate with him. In fact agnew believes one. Man bears responsibility for the disobedience of this flower power generation during the speech. Agnew proclaims who do you suppose is the blame when ten years later. That child comes home from college and sits down at the table with dirty bare feet in a disorderly face full of hair. Agnew isn't referring to an outspoken musician or political opponent. the man he's denouncing is a pediatrician. By the name of doctor. Benjamin spock in the early twentieth century. Doctors instructed parents to not pick up their babies when they were crying. Show them too much affection. It was thought that this rigid approach to parenting would result in more resilient and independent children. Dr spot disagreed so in nineteen forty. Six doctor spock authored. The common sense book of baby and child care in his law. Spock advocates that while structure and discipline or important parents also need to follow their instincts. Be flexible and show their children love and affection. It was an instant bestseller completely flipped the script on parenting but by the nineteen sixties conservative personalities publications all across the. Us were pushing back. They claim that the rebellious nature of the anti war protesters stem from spock's won't permissive ideas on parenting. But his critics didn't stop in one thousand. Nine hundred seventy six. The common sense book of baby and child care became the best selling book of all time in the us. Second only to the bible. Dr spa changed our understanding of parenting and child.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Who saw that we looked at that type of optimization said wow that looks pretty good. The future of snack flavors may come as much from software as from the kitchen. But the truth is snack. Foods have always been on the forefront of gastronomic innovation flavor. Historian nadia baron. Stain s. snack is sort of a place where people feel comfortable going for flavor experimentation to try something new to try something that really tastes different. Sects are sort of priming palettes to expect more. And i think that you see this playing out not just among you know. Snack food eaters but everywhere that people care about food in culture whether we're talking about fast food or some hot new restaurant. People have have sort of become these flavors seekers and the kind of sensory intense personalized distinctive sensory experience provided by commercial snack. Foods have sort of allowed us to begin imagining in this way. Snacking isn't going away if anything it surging with some figures showing a sixty percent increase in the purchase of snack food during covert and. We'll are buying more nutritious alternatives blockbuster products such as cheetos door. Rita's have seen the largest upticks in sales snack. Food will always be a little bit of a guilty pleasure put. The future holds the promise of alternatives. That are healthy and delicious while featuring flavor combinations at most of us could never imagine and that's a tasty prospect. I'm walter isaacson and you've been listening to trail blazers and original podcast from dell technologies. If you'd like to learn more about any of the guests in today's episode please visit dell technologies dot com slash trailblazers. Thanks for.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Yeah it's a sunny day. In minority puck california in the mid nineteen twenties and loris gutter is giving her employees. Some homework as clock out of the day. Scott is up. Plucking entrepreneur is recently decided to start selling snacks to motorists at her husband's gestation. Soon after starting this new venture she realizes that a relatively new gastronomic innovation the salty crispy irresistible potato chip is a best seller. But that's where the problem begins. Potato chips are sold out of large wooden barrels. They're handy for storage but not so great for keeping them fresh. The chips tastes great straight out of the friar but after a couple of hours in a wood barrel. They become soggy. Losing that signature. Crunch that makes them so satisfying to eat so scuttled makes what seems like a practical decision. But unbeknownst to her we'll have a huge impact on the way people eat for decades to come when her employees are done for the day. Scudder sent them home with sheets of wax paper and instructs them to fold an iron the wax sheets into flat bags when they come back to work. The following day scudder wraps a fresh batch of chips and h bag. The wax paper has the miraculous effect of keeping the chips perfectly and as delicious as the moment there fry. They're a huge success. And because chips keep their crunch scudder decides the brand them the noisiest chips in the world.
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Moderna. The thing that jumped out to me was This idea that. If if messenger are rene could be harnessed to make medicines and vaccines that it would be very much an information technology at a major transformation. How we think about making medicines. This is dr steven hogue. He's the president of moderna hogue. And the folks that madonna believe. The technology has the potential to revolutionize not just the development of vaccines but therapeutic drugs as well because what messenger ordinary aruna is is. It's just a way to send instructions to a cell in the body To make a protein and that meant that if you could crack the code if you will if you could find a way to produce messenger are and get it into cells and cause them to make proteins that you would be able to do nearly limitless number of things because You just need to change the instructions as opposed to change everything about the vaccine or about the medicine which is the traditional way that they've been developed and that idea eh. Just was captivating. When madonna was founded in two thousand ten the company was primarily interested in using mri to develop therapeutics but it quickly shifted. Its focus to vaccines in fact by the time. News began to filter out of china about a new corona virus. Madonna had already used. 'em are anna in nine successful trials for different vaccines. That's why hogue says. The company was confident that they're covid nineteen vaccine would work but it still needed to go through clinical trials and approval by regulators. And i will never forget the moment that the independent data safety monitoring board allowed myself. And was actually. Dr fauci was there as well We were allowed into their virtual meeting room and they read out the results and that the vaccine was ninety. Four percent effective far far beyond. I think are sumptious going into that. That read out that you just this incredible sense of elation and little bit of pride but just joy that That all of this work the last eight years and particularly everything that happened in twenty twenty was going to pay off in and that we were going to be able to stop this. Pandemic developing a safe and effective vaccine in less than a year is an extraordinary accomplishment. The previous record was four years. And we've only begun to tap the potential of mri may moderna has now turned. Its attention back to the vaccines. It was developing before covid nineteen came along including avian flu and the virus. But it's a vaccine that can treat cancer after already developed that has long been the holy grail for researchers most infectious diseases have a limited number of variations but every cancer tumor is different. So how can you develop a vaccine for a disease with such a high degree of personalization. Hogue is convinced that it's now possible using mri may. It's a really unique approach. It is a personalized cancer vaccine. So we actually make aren't vaccine for each individual individually based on their cancer. And so what you do. Is you take a biopsy of their cancer and you figure out what's the what does that cancer look like. What are the mutations that that cancer has and then we turn those mutations into a vaccine that specifically drives an immune response to those mutations and give that back to the individual think of it as as really just strengthening the immune response or helping to teach the immune system what the cancer looks like and one of the great things about a software like technology. Like messenger irony is that we really are able to create an individualized vaccine using the same technology. Just by copying pasting your information into it and it's the same technology really that we use to create a billion doses of corona virus vaccine. There's no question that has radically changed the future a vaccine science. There's no hope for diseases like cancer that once seemed impervious to vaccines. Researchers are also working on a universal vaccine for influenza and for rare genetic diseases. Such as cystic fibrosis caused by dysfunctional deficient proteins. But if two hundred years of vaccine research as taught us anything is that. There's no place for overconfidence. The next pathogen that comes along maybe even more deadly more elusive than we've encountered before the good news is that we will now go into the next battle better armed and ever before. I'm walter isaacson and you've been listening to trail blazers an original podcast from dell technologies. If you'd like to learn more about the guests and today's episode please visit dell technologies dot com slash trail blazers. Thanks for listening..
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"walter isaacson" Discussed on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
"Tobruk twelve seventeen. Sixty eight and russia's catherine the great is that the imperial palace in saint petersburg. The empress is nervous. And so as an english doctor named thomas dimsdale. He's been brought to russia to perform a risky and unusual procedure. A smallpox epidemic has infiltrated the russian kingdom and killed twenty thousand of her siberian subjects. So catherine a great advocate of science and technology has beckoned dimsdale and volunteered to undergo a new treatment. She hopes it will not only prevent her from contracting the deadly disease but also inspire trust in modern medicine dimsdale cut small slices and catherine's arm and then grind some pustules containing the smallpox virus into wound. What could possibly go wrong. Well for one thing. The empress could wind up getting smallpox. A disease. That at the time killed about a third of everyone who contracted it and even of katherine survives. She might end up like most smallpox survivors pockmarked and disfigured for life. The procedure is called very elation. The idea is as simple as it is. Bizarre intentionally infect a healthy person with a weakened version of a pathogen so that person can develop an immunity to the pathogen is performed the procedure thousands of times. But it's always rescued. Inject too much of the virus and a healthy person can become very ill inject too little and the body would fail to the desired immunity. Dimsdale is so nervous about performing this procedure. On the empress. He secretly arranged stagecoach to rush amount of saint petersburg in case things. Don't go as planned. Luckily the treatment is a success. Catherine develops a mild case of smallpox and has a full recovery in two weeks since that evening in russia smallpox has been a radical and vaccines have saved millions of lives and today vaccines against the covid. Nineteen virus quickly turning the tie against the pandemic that threatened to bring the world to its knees. The idea behind what. Thomas dimsdale did two hundred and fifty years ago in fact the body in order to save. It might sound counterintuitive but it's the foundation upon which vaccines have been built. Ever since but recent advancements in vaccine technology might just change the way we fight disease forever. I'm walter isaacson and you're listening to trail blazers and original pod gashing dell technologies. You're now inoculated. Isn't that great..
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
"walter isaacson" Discussed on The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
"Three times news. Items were faxed to real one fake child by panelists. Got the tell me which one is to be a theme this week and that theme is science myths myths about miss about scientific discovery or research not necessarily science facts or miss about scientists. Let's say boy okay. Item number one. The claim that einstein's first wife malaysia merrick silently collaborated with einstein in developing. The theory of relativity is not supported by any evidence and generally considered by historians to be untrue. I number two. Despite their legendary status the galapagos finches do not appear to have been important to darwin's development of his theory and go unmentioned in on the origin of species. And i never three while. Alexander fleming is credited with these serendipitous discovery of penicillin. He never considered. It's therapeutic potential and was not cited in the later work that actually developed penicillin as a drug. Evan go first damn this einstein. One is hurting me. So his first wife silently collaborated with einstein in developing the theory of relativity. Saying it's not supported by any evidence generally considered by historians to be untrue. What did i read about this guy. Shade rented in now. Walter isaacson book. He talks about her lot about me in a lot in that book but trying to remember was it in the context that she actually did help or was she more or less just kind of taking care of all their aspects of einstein's life. So he could do his work. Gos- this one is driving me crazy. A little bit the other two. So yeah galapagos finches. Gosh who who hasn't grown up learning about those. I mean since what fourth grade science class but not not important to darwin's development of his theory and go on mentioned in on the origin of species. Well that that's possible Boy it's so prevalent though in the whole darwin legend for lack of a better term. It's hard to hard to sort of decouple the to It's so ingrained. But i have a feeling that will wind up being a science and then the last one alexander fleming. His discovery of penicillin and never considered therapeutic potential mean. The story goes that it was an accident right. The discovery was so i. If if that were the case you know when you have these accidental sort of discoveries do do you put any thought into the potential of what's going on with what you've discovered therapeutic or otherwise or is it that that's possible as well boy. The one about einstein's really sticking in my craw might just gonna put my nickel down on that one she. He did meet her in at university though and she was she was taking science. She was in physics classes. I'll say the one about einstein therefore is the fiction. Yeah because that one's just rubbing me the wrong way. Okay but as you good steve. Damn this is frustrating. So i'll i'll say that The first one with einstein's collaboration with his first wife. I think that depends how you define collaboration. I think he talked to other people especially for some of the fine details of the math. You're collaborating is one thing a little help here. And there is one thing. But if she offered you know incredibly insightful input the net would be a different beast. Toss say that that one is could could be science score. The third one here the penicillin. Yeah i've got some unreliable memory about what happened after he discovered penicillin and i remember being surprised so i'll say that that was potentially sciences. Well that leaves the finches. Yeah i'd say that one. That one's fiction decided. I'm not very confident and care. This is hard. I mean i definitely. I watched genius the series by nat. Go and they showed me being very important to einstein's work like collaborating with lake actually not just supporting him emotionally and psychologically supporting him like like editing his pages like pushing back when he would assert things and saying. I need you to explain this more. I need to see a better proof for this or have you thought about it this way and i think she had a phd in physics or no. She didn't need the neither did einstein. I forgot but yeah they did. She did ultimately study like she was a hardcore physicist. So i don't know that one bothers me the fact that she wasn't helpful i don't know that feels sexist and gross the alexander fleming one. He never it's therapeutic potential. I don't see how that's the case. He was not just. He didn't just randomly discover it. I mean he did kind of but he was a microbiologist right. He wasn't just like some random dude. Like this guy was. I think working as a microbiologist like he would have gotten why this matters and so the finches one is the one that's left for me to and maybe the reason this is the trip up is because maybe never made it into on the origin of species but maybe it was like in his hms. Beagle he wrote all about the galapagos in a different book and so maybe the finches were in a different book and he didn't really need to talk about the origin of species. That's that's the one thing that sticking out to me that. Maybe i'm going to go with bob on that we'll see. Yeah that's it okay. So bob and keira think the finches one is the fiction ever knew the einstein was a fiction so you all agree on the third one. So we'll start there while alexander fleming is credited with the serendipitous discovery of penicillin. He never considered it's therapeutic potential and was not cited in the later work that actually developed penicillin as drug. You all think that one is science and that one is the fiction we swept damn. He wasn't microbiologist. Though right he absolutely was so. That's the point he wasn't. Microbiologist was doing a lot of research on bacteria. so here's the story alexander fleming you know the whole story of he was actually doing research or there was other other research being done in the place where he was the penicillin fungus. Some of he had read a messy lab. He had old bacterial plates stacked up and the fungus got into some of his bacteria with staph aureus and and killed it wherever there was a little spot of bacteria fungus growing around it the bacteria would be dead because it was secreting the penicillin which was killing off the staff oreos. He made that observation. He completely understood the implication of that. He wasn't the first one to make that observation but he definitely made but what he did do was published a paper. Saying hey this penicillin. Fungus is killing off the back the surrounding bacteria. It's probably secreting something that could be used as a an antibiotic right so he recognize the therapeutic potential. Where he fell short was he was never able to develop it into a workable drug. He.
Squawk Pod
House prepares to pass $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, and Biden is expected to sign it this week
"The senate passing present. Biden's one point nine trillion dollar stimulus package over the weekend. It now heads to the house. And he'll have more joins us now with more on that. And she can also weigh in on oprah in the world of two as well. good morning. well angie. I didn't get a chance to watch the interview. Because i was so busy. Following all the ins and outs of this relief package as you would've now headed for. That's my drama. That's my job. The bill is now headed to a final vote in the house. After some last minute. Haggling in the senate over the weekend. Democratic senator joe manchin held up this process for nearly twelve hours as he pushed scale back that boost and jobless benefits the amount will now be three hundred dollars a week instead of four hundred dollars but the last one week longer ending on september the six in addition the first ten thousand two hundred dollars in benefits will be tax free for households. Earning less than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. Now in the end democrats did hold the line. Pass the bill saturday afternoon. Republicans they also stuck together with every gop. Senator voting against it at the white house later. President biden acknowledged that the politics weren't always pretty but he said the relief was urgently needed. This plant puts us on a path to beating the virus. This plan gives those families who are struggling the most help and the breathing room. They need to get through this moment. This plan gives small businesses country. A fighting chance to survive at the house plans to vote on this package on tuesday. Guys i give the president plenty of time to sign this into law before there's unemployment benefits run out at the end of the week back to you Ilan well here. We have a deal here. We have a deal after all this time right. If the first time you get the check if when you start checking the mail for the check okay so i. The house does have to vote on. The president does have to sign it but right and said over the weekend that he expects the checks to be able to go out sometime later on this month what we saw in december once the last relief package was passed was that it took about a week for those first. Texas are hitting bank account so that seems like a realistic timeframe. it could take a little bit longer. If you're actually receiving a check in the mail though
The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
"walter isaacson" Discussed on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
"A real.
Squawk Pod
Jeff Bezos Exits as CEO, but His Role at Amazon Will Likely Be Little Changed
"Let's get onto jeff. Bazo stepping aside amazon. Ceo sixty-seven he's going to have a good life. He's been kind of executive chairman for a while. People say you read that that. No one's really ever seen him at the seattle campus and they're not sure if they've ever really seen him there. He's going to become executive chairman of the board. He's a steady intends to focus energy on new products and early initiatives. The company's top cloud executive andy jazzy. No relation to hugh. I'm told he's going to take over the ceo role in the third quarter. Thank you for being here. Becky i at least get you get you once in a while. You remember bart simpson. It took me a second. Yes a second calls the bar. He calls with the bar and says it. Could i speak to this jet huge jazz. You jazz ivana tinkle. There's other ones anyway. But we digress meantime amazon. This amanda this this is this is andy jazzy. Not not hugh jazz meantime. Amazon's earnings a fourteen zero nine beat estimates of seven. Twenty-three a share. That's easy to say that fourteen zero nine beat estimates of seven. Twenty-three the atmos community the they need to go back to their spreadsheets. Revenue of one hundred twenty five billion dollars also beat estimates and it marked the first time amazon's revenue exceeded one hundred billion dollars in a quarter. That's also easy to say but hard to fathom revenue exceeded one hundred billion dollars walmart. And i it didn't just exceed one hundred billion dollars and a quarter it exceeded one hundred and twenty five billion so it was the first time they'd gone over one hundred billion and they they didn't just like step over the line they like smacked it out of the park right. Even in a non holiday quarter. They're expecting a hundred to one hundred six billion dollars in the first quarter. That is a slowdown obviously sequentially from the fourth quarter of at thirty three percent higher than the same quarter a year ago. I saw that yesterday. And i have to say my chen kind of literally fell open when i was reading the headlines about it then i read bazo says note and his letter about why he's doing it and i get it and it makes sense and you mentioned that you know he's been out there doing other things for a while. Maybe not a huge surprise except for that. He's not going to be completely disconnected. He still gets to be involved with the whole thing but he gets to do what he wants to make. Sure there are other people. They're recognizing that they're running a lot of the day to day operations and stuff. But i mean it's a great job you said he's going to have a great life. He already has a great life. This is he gets to do what he wants to do. Laying out in that letter. Why he was doing it and all the things they've accomplished. I forgot about things like one click shopping. That was such a big deal when they actually did that. I think that was before. Two thousand because i think about i wrote about it for the wall street journal and that was such a revolutionary idea and now we think of it as being nothing and he said. That's the best thing that you can possibly hope for. Is that people yawn at your innovation because they become so commonplace. They've done so many things along the way the focus on customers what they've done with the cloud. I mean they've done so many things along the way and i was amazed blown away reading just his quick list of some of the things. He's proud about some of their accomplishments. Because i'd forgotten about some of them
POLITICO's Nerdcast
TikTok reaches deal that would give Oracle oversight of U.S. operations
"And Tick Tock recently made headlines Everywhere when Resin Donald Trump signed an executive order. That would essentially ban the Chinese owned APP in the US for national security reasons. Unless it sells its operations here to an American company. And of course, if that were to happen. We would have nowhere to go to see a million potatoes singing. To Adele. And that would be a national tragedy. This week deal actually emerged between TIKTOK and American company Oracle but some people like Zachary say trump's tiktok policy effectively changes. Nothing. The argument goes like this. It will do little to protect Americans data from the Chinese government because there are still plenty of other ways China could get that data that this move is just a new kind of security theater basically. The hard work of data security according to this actually lies elsewhere. So, Zachary TIKTOK has been banned in Indiana a few other countries, but it's still pretty popular for now it's the most popular video sharing app i. can see why it seems like fun and there are mental creative. They're short I mean the whole nature of the medium has their time limited. What happened with Tiktok this week what happened this week? Should be clear but isn't. Basically, in August, the trump administration ordered via executive order whose legality remains highly questionable that the Chinese owner of Tiktok, a company called Bite Dance. Divest itself of Owning Tiktok within ninety days or face the prospect that tiktok would be shut down in the United States. I broke the deal I said you can't do business in the United States, which is at least potentially within the power of the US federal government based on national security concerns based on national security and the logistics are complicated that you probably could order apple and other people and servers that are hosting tiktok. that. They couldn't do it and it would defacto make it impossible for Tiktok to function. So that is what began a process where the owner of Tiktok, again, a Chinese company sought an alternative way to their cell, the US portion of Tiktok or what ended up happening major deals Rocking Wall Street this morning pushing futures higher. We find an American technology partner Oracle beat Microsoft and become the technology partner for TIC TACS US operations although will not. receive its coveted algorithm so that all took talks data would be kept in the United States on servers owned by an American company and not by Chinese company because the whole point of this was that all these people using Tiktok, these tens of millions, hundreds of millions that data was potentially vulnerable to being used and therefore misused by the Chinese government. How so So the fear was because technology companies in China by Chinese law are required if. By the Chinese government to turn over data relevant data that the Chinese government could tell the parent company of Tiktok, hand us all of your user data which user data of again tens of millions of Americans. and. Then China would have that data. So that was the concern right and and that's a legitimate fact the Chinese government could order that. The problem is, of course, one via our court system, an American court can order or prosecutor can subpoena data. From our companies. So it's not like what you and I do on Google or what we do on any technology provider is somehow. Unavailable. To government if government decides that it's in its interest to get it not to mention the the various many non-government actors, the vacuum, the stuff up and use it for their own purposes that is even more important I think probably more relevant to the China issue which is. Does it matter whether the data is in this case, potentially house by Oracle massive US hardware and software company versus being housed by servers in China. In terms of the ability of the Chinese government to obtain that data, it wanted to obtain it because not just third parties that hoover up data and use it in the whole buying selling and the data market, but just spying tools. Whether it's the NSA in the National Security Agency in the United States or various Israeli cybersecurity and or cyber spying companies or the Chinese government. Most of this data isn't that secure. Not. Like. Triple encrypted quantum encrypted defense department level communications. So likely true that if the Chinese government really wanted my teens Tiktok data, it doesn't really matter whether that data's House on servers in China owned by Chinese company or whether it was housed on American servers on buying American company. So I guess, then how do we get to this point? How did you know given what you just said why has this become such a big issue? How did it start? Yeah it's a good question I I'm not sure. There's a precise answer. It's part of a whole continuum of the trump administration in particular identifying China as a proximate threat to the United States and a whole series of ways competitively in terms of trade practices hence the hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imported goods that have been subject to American tariffs. It's part of a multi year campaign against this massive Chinese telecom equipment company called Wa wa, which has been a leader in next generation five G. Telecom equipment in a way that again, some of the same concerns have existed which is. That the Chinese government would would use the production of that equipment as a way to spy on who met from purchase adequate. And Look a few years ago. There was a a forced sale of gay dating APP Grindr, which was also owned by a Chinese company, and so there was an earlier precedent of forcing a Chinese company to sell an American APP Social App. Because, of data concerns and finally, there's the fact that for years long predating the trump administration. China has not allowed American social media companies like facebook. To function in China. So there's the tit for tat. You know you don't let our social media functioning companies function there. Why should we let yours function here? There's Several year campaign against China which the trump administration's pursued but I think has a good deal of democratic support I. Mean if it's close to a bipartisan sentiment that China, China's a threat as anything we have right now. Why Tiktok? Suddenly became a thing I may partly have to do with the fact that it suddenly became a very big deal in the United States. I mean, this was not a company that had any footprint several years ago and suddenly as. The APP does your so it may have had to do with something that got really big and is very noticeable. Salsa not that economically important. So a lot of people would be royally pissed off Tiktok were banned. It's not like tiktok is. An integral component. To the US economy either during covid or without covid. So it's an easier target. We'll be right back. Everyone wants to become a better leader this groundbreaking new book how to lead shows you how David M Rubenstein is one of the visionary founders of the Carlisle Group and host of the David Rubenstein Show where he speaks to leaders from every walk of life about who they are, how they define success and what it means to lead. Jeff bezos Richard Branson Warren Buffett Bill Gates Ruth Bader Ginsburg Phil Knight Oprah all of them and more are featured in how to lead this essential leadership playbook illustrates the principles and guiding philosophies of the world's greatest game changers discover the expert secrets to being. Effective innovative leaders. Walter Isaacson proclaims reading this invaluable trove of advice from the greatest leaders of our time is like sitting in an armchair and listening to the masters reveal their secrets, pick up a copy of how to lead wisdom from the world's greatest CEOS founders and Game Changers Bhai David Rubenstein available in Hardcover e book or audio, and we're back I get the kind of general personal security aspect of it. Where does the national security aspect of it come in? Is it because there's concern about people who worked at the Defense Department or the military whoever having to talk in in use in their households or people in the Defense Department are not allowed to use tiktok certainly not on their phones. For before this although they may have teenagers who That's vulnerability as well. So it wasn't primarily about like US government employees who might have sensitive data that tiktok would be the back door way that the Chinese government would spy on them but it was generalized sense of any foreign government that is using private American citizen data potentially for nefarious purposes represents a national security threat. Now, it clearly has not represented the kind of national security threat in the estimation of the White House right now when it's Russian. Manipulation of social media accounts the same principle should or would apply right. If you'RE GONNA ban, Tiktok you'd probably want to take action against the a variety of Russian media enterprises that are attempting to manipulate and hoover up American user data. Some of that data's you mentioned earlier in terms of third party is available to anybody for a price just because there's a marketplace for data. Which I think either most of us aren't aware of or frankly most probably don't care if politicos data on this podcast gets sold to fourteen vendors so that it can sell you and me products based on our other computer activity most people. Either like that, or don't care about that. But the national security concern is simply because it's a foreign government that could potentially. Use, our search history or browsing history nefarious. And again a, that might be true but be it's likely that all this kind of data is obtainable irrespective of whether or not a company called TIKTOK. Happens to have access to a lot of it. It's really interesting. So into this whole story comes oracle, you know huge hardware software firm but how did they get involved here? Yes. Oracle is is a multibillion dollar firm that has had the same public profile as Microsoft or Amazon or facebook or apple because most of its business is to other large companies, you know you and I don't tend to go out and buy Oracle piece of hardware because we don't need a hundred and fifty thousand dollars server or. Network system for our employees. They're largely corporate provider throw a huge provider to the Defense Department in terms of cheer equipment and material, and they're huge software company. They're one of the early Silicon Valley success stories and the billionaire founder Larry Ellison has been probably more conservative than not I don't know that I buy into the whole. This is a reward versus. A snub to the other potential main acquirer or partner for Tiktok, which was rumored to be Microsoft but this is an unusual. This doesn't usually fit oracle's business model. Well, that's that's interesting. So what is their interest in getting involved here perceived to be I'm not one hundred percent clear about that I mean look at could allow them to. Have a little bit more of a consumer facing brand. Again, I mean Oracle's. Primarily a software company primarily a database company. Maybe this could help them increase their databases. There's no way that this is a natural fit for goal. But at the same time north this a huge cost for Oracle, maybe it'll produce some American jobs. I mean. They're looking for growth just like everybody's looking for growth, and once you get to be the size of Oracle. Growth gets harder some of they're also looking for a DIFFERENT INDUSTRY TO BE President Chore? So. What exactly did they given? What did they get here that as of this conversation is not one hundred percent clear off so it was presented as or go by tiktok. That is not the case or at least it's not the case now and as possible. The deal will be scuttled or change given that all of this has to be approved by the government has to be approved by committee. Called Syfy S, which is the committee in charge of looking at global deals in terms of US national security, but it would seem that right now. The parent company of Tiktok saw own TIKTOK and get some of the economic benefits of TIKTOK. This Chinese company called by dance and that Oracle in turn will get a massive licensing deal to house Tiktok data and information on its own. Servers and using its own software. So the concern that the Chinese government would have access to that data would be allayed meeting under this agreement arrangement because the data would be managed by and it's housing would be arranged by a US company. The Chinese government could order by dance to turn over but by dance itself wouldn't actually have access to that data. It's interesting I mean based on what you said before it's they're they're they're moving this data from place a, it's not going to be in a different place and I guess the Chinese government will no longer have a key to the door. But as you said before there's many different ways that either the Chinese government or a lot of other. State or private actors can get hold on more or less any data they want to these days right? which kind of raises the question for point of all, this is ENA. It's certainly true. It would make it a little more challenging to get that data under that kind of arrangement. It seems like this a big fight over a big company. That's not actually really about. The literal subject of the conflict here. Yeah. It is totally fair to say that whatever the imbroglio about tiktok has very little to do with tiktok. And everything to do with US policy toward China. And the trump administration looking for some High profile optic to be able to say we're we're being tough on China and protecting American citizens. Again, the oddity of Tiktok is given that so many of its users or young adults. Who Don't vote although who would be? Extremely, Acetate it. If they woke up tomorrow and there's no TIKTOK meeting, it's probably not. The most popular move if what you're trying to do is gain support during a presidential election. So it's not entirely clear what constituency the served there wasn't like a huge congressional clamor for Oh my God. We're all big imperilled by these fifteen second videos. So where do you think things go from here in terms of into in terms of the real story behind all this in terms of the U., S., China relationship and the increasing in. them of that. So I think to some degree regardless of who wins the presidential election. there. Is a train that's left the proverbial station of increasing. Distrust and animosity between the United States and China. But within the context of an incredible amount of economic interdependence that you cannot just snap your fingers and several or at least not without massive massive harm to each part of that equation both the United States and China, and that's that's pretty unprecedented. Right? Right. That's like the Cold War analogy doesn't work because there was no economic relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union nineteen. Fifty S
Mac Power Users
State of the iPad
"The IPAD. This is one of the shows when we put that on the list. I was thinking this is one that is going to be an emotional journey for me because I am a particular fan of the IPAD and it has taken me ups and downs. It's been a very emotional apple product for me But I thought before we got into the details of worthy IPAD is today. I thought it'd be fun to spend a little bit of time. Just kind of talking about how the IPAD came to be and kind of the genesis of the product. I think that helps inform what has happened in. Maybe where it's going and the The the story is I mean the the Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs biography. There's a lot of people that have a lot of problems with that book. But he does a good job documenting some of the apple products and how they came to be one of the interesting stories. He tells them the book is how seems wife? Convinced him to go to dinner with somebody from Microsoft and the guy couldn't stop blathering on about the windows tablet system and Steve got so mad that he went back to apple said. Okay then we can make one to and You know I'm kind of summarizing but that that's really we're apples started thinking about the touch operating system and the very first iphone was not an iphone. It was an IPAD. Even though it probably didn't have that name at the time it was you know what if we had a small screen not iphone screen but like an ipad size screen and we put a touch operating system on it and they started playing with that and very quickly realized that no way to second? This technology is good enough. We could make a phone out of it. They they kind of abandoned or put on the shelf. The tablet plans and went all in on the product. That eventually became the iphone So the the IPAD started before the iphone but didn't get finished until after they kind of got the iphone into the market and was an established product. But from the outside. I can tell you I was very excited about apple making a tablet for very long time. It had been rumored for ever just like the phone hat right if you go back to two thousand five or so people talking about apple's going to do a phone is going to be based on the IPOD and of course they're remorse with click wheel. Yeah boo-boy and there were a lot of rumors about the tablet as well and there were during that time frame. That guy talked about and wrote about wanting it to run MAC software and clear in hindsight. That wasn't where they were ever going to go and didn't make much sense. But the the iphone kind of laying the the way for the IPAD. I think apple did things in the right order. I remember multiple trips for some reason. There's one bridge on the The freeway to the Orange County airport and I would fly up there for macworld every year and for some reason I drive onto that bridge every time and think about is this year. We're going to get the tablet and to this day. I still think about the IPAD traffic bridge. Now your brain makes these connections but and there were all these ways. The thing about like you said is going to be like a Mac that would make sense because a lot of the original windows tablets were windows computers and they had fans and they had they were big and they ran windows computing platform with a pin. So naturally you would think apple would go that direction but as the iphone took root and became bigger. I think a lot a lot of folks thought. Well you know a touch interface. Kind of big iphone is what they're going to do but are they going to do and nobody knew how big the screen size was gonna be. Nobody knew how much they're going to. You know. Keep it just like the iphone versus stray from the IPHONE. Give it a separate operating system and all this stuff was hypothetic- hypothetical and It was great kind of fun figuring out what it would be and speculating about it. Just you know one of the fun things about liking apple stuff sometimes is trying to figure out you know like now. We're talking about what these glasses going to be like. It was the same thing but I think it was more fun. Talking about. The tablet is a tablet. Is something that a lot of people actually wanted. I'm not sure the glasses are is going to be as popular so we had all these thoughts and and I remember one of the thoughts. We thought about was price. If there was a lot of rumors I think including in the Wall Street Journal that this was going to cost nine ninety nine and at the time that you could get a Mac book for I think eleven or twelve ninety nine so phallic yeah. This'll be a little bit less than a laptop and I think I think a lot of people going into the event really thought nine was gonna be it I would. I would have expected that to be the price you know. In in hindsight that was half the price. That was one of the big deal. I mean one of the biggest announcements of the IPAD was the price point. It was four ninety nine. Yeah there's this great bit in the keynote and I'm GonNa put in the notes. I recently rewatch the IPAD. Keynote into like a commentary. Track if you haven't seen that on my youtube channel it'll be available for you and there's this great line that we wanna make our best technology available for everybody and bigger wrong for nine still a lot of money for a lot of people but it is way more attainable. The nine ninety nine and it really made the. I've had seemed like something that anyone could attain for not that much money compared to a laptop which is really cool. I guess I love to technology when it's new. Come come out where you know price. It's pretty accessible. I remember someone telling me that was at the event that at the time they said. How can apple make this for four ninety nine four ninety nine? And how can they sell this and make money off of it and the apple executives appointed Tim Cook in the audience and said because of that guy that's whites for ninety nine and so that was like one of the first time Tim Cook became real prevalent to mind for me in terms of his relationship to what he's doing for apple so it is an interesting product. The other thing that's interesting about the four nine thousand nine price was a lot of us going in wanted more from the IPAD than a big iphone. I mean I did. I mean you wanted a Mac right. You wanted to run keyboard master on your IPAD so That I think that was a fair position. I mean obviously it's not the direction they went what they did was they made a big iphone or maybe even more apt a big ipod touch and it really had the same icon grid. It did not stray the answer the question earlier the original ipad did not stray at all very far from the iphone And I think that four ninety nine price for a lot of us myself included kind of distracted me from the fact that it wasn't as powerful as I would have liked it to have been. There is clear may even to this day right. There's clear. Dna shared between the IPHONE and IPAD in his early days. Yes the interface was redone. They talk a lot about that. And that keynote we went into all of our APPS and crater these new you is to take advantage of the nine point seven screen but the IPAD didn't do anything markedly different than what the iphone could do as terms of functionality. It kind of was a big phone that that changed over time. I think that's pretty different now. But in those early days that was criticism that was often hurled at the IPAD. And it wasn't completely unfounded. However apple did realize that we've got a bigger screen. So what can we do with it? And they spent a significant portion of the the product announcement keynote talking about productivity up specifically. All the I work apps came over and interesting ways I mean I. I would argue to this day. Some of the design paradigm they brought to the IPAD with those original are better than a lot of the third party. Apps to this day in terms of trying to adopt it as will would if we put a spreadsheet on a tablet. You know what would different what would be different. How would we change the input mechanism etcetera? And so so they did try to answer the question with the launch. But you know I I in insight. There was a long ways to go in that introduction Phil Schiller calls numbers the spreadsheet. That's cool and fun to use thing. Okay Okay Phil Schiller but I think it was important that they started with I work. I live came with the IPAD two year later. They were building the case. You can do work on. This is going to good for email and web browsing and looking at your photos but if you need to write a document or you need to work on a presentation which. I still think he didn't on the IPAD is. It's so much fun to use as much fun to put sides together that way they were building. That story at the IPAD was a creation
Squawk Pod
Mood in Beijing about trade deal is pessimistic
"We have an update now on one big catalyst. The China trade talks over the weekend. Chinese Vice Premier Liu said spoke on on the phone with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Chinese state media says the men discussed phase one trade deal and the discussions were constructive. HAVE UNITS YOU and joins us now as a read on how Chinese officials are viewing the impeachment hearings. What that could mean for deal Larry Kudlow has been saying we're getting close? I've heard that a couple the times in recent days you're hearing that maybe there's there's three steps forward two steps back. What what? What is your insight inside here? Well actually I spoke to a government source who is familiar with the trade talks to end. There appears to be growing pessimism within the Chinese government that a trade deal can be done and especially this year and the source had told me that there were a couple of events recently that have really soured the mood within the government. They said that President trump about a week ago appeared to say that a phasing out of terrorists would not happen. And that's something. That's really important to the Chinese. And was one of the reasons why the Commerce Ministry had announced that the Chinese felt that they had a deal will at least in principle on a phasing out of the tariffs and then a few days later they were put off again. They said the source said when President Trump had said at the Economic Club in New York Some harsh words about the Chinese. In addition to that there is still L. Disagreement over some of the basic points within a phase. One deal a one of them is the agricultural purchases as you guys know of the. US wants China China to commit to specific targets but this source said that from the Chinese perspective There the concern or at least one of them is that This can be off putting some of their other trading partners so all of that is adding to a very negative picture over here and then he did say that the Chinese now are looking very carefully at the political situation in the United States especially about the possibility of impeachment. He said there's a lot of discussion now within the government about the election. That's coming up only a year away and all of that just raises questions as to whether or not president trump is even going to be an office in the next couple of months
Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson
Printers: What Will We Print Next?
"Agean our printer if you were to come into my lab at Harvard. You would see a multi material platform where each of these inks are loaded into cartridges. And then they we come down and we start to print layer by layer goal to print out a functioning human kidney. And it seems within reach. I do think we're within a decade of printing vital organ tissues that can be used for repair and ultimately replacement. We're moving along that path our research, I think is providing a foundational piece towards that goal. But there are many other groups working on this as well across the world. While Lewis develop structures of molecular complexity other engineers, like hice fund death. Elton are using three D printing to create objects on a much larger scale. We were looking for an ID that could really communicate that it was now possible to three d print. Lurch kill items relatively fast and constructive. And then what's better to prove that case than printing bridge Amsterdam Vandamme feldon and his company are using a specially designed metal printer to print a ten meter long steel footbridge over canal in the city's red light district. What we're looking for is designs that at just a little bit more intelligence or functionality in a way that you would never be able to do when you produce these items with the classic methods. So for example, we can make hollow spaces and giving them an internal structure, and because of that you have much more lightweight and product which can be very handy. If you go to space, or if you wanna make your car later or bridge. But the greatest impact tweedy printing could have in the near future might be a lot closer to home over the last decade consumer-friendly three D printers have become easier to access unless expensive, and they may herald a change in the way, we interact with the world around us as the editor of make magazine a lot of people started incorporating three D printed parts into the projects that we covered in the magazine. And so I thought I better get three printer myself. So that I can become familiar with it. And and understand where this technology is heading mock frowned Felder is the author of made by hand my adventures in the world of do it yourself and the former editor of make magazine it was crude but right away. I started seeing that this thing was going to become. A pretty important part of my life and my family's life. One of the first things I started doing was actually printing parts of things around the house that had broken and that turned out to be like a great thing for for fixing stuff like parts and a dishwasher parts of patio furniture parts of of roll up lines in house parts for the freezer mechanism in our refrigerator hissing was coming in really handy. And I thought we are going to see three d printing technology and into homes as people find this thing. More and more useful.
Techmeme Ride Home
New Amazon Device: Fire TV Cube
"Amazon today announced a new device the fire tv cube essentially your echo speaker and your fire tv dangle had a baby and it's a new set top video box which will allow you to get your tv on with full alexa integration with the fire tv cube you can talk to alexa you can search for movies you can trigger alexa skills you can talk to the device when tv is off but it also has that special kind of hdmi that i mentioned yesterday cdc which allows you to turn your tv on and off control the sound maybe even control your cable box if your cable provider allows that amazon says the cube supports boxes from comcast dish and direct tv in essence with the fire tv cube you could set up a system where if you were to say alexa watch tv everything would just simply turn on and work in a way it's the vision that steve jobs hinted at two walter isaacson all those years ago when he said that he thought he had finally cracked the tv experience by the by the cube still comes with a standard remote and it has an ira blaster built in so if the idea of talking to your tv sounds exhausting you still have the usual options but also expect alexa to now make use of your tv screen if you ask for a weather forecast it can pop up a nice graphic and daily briefings can now theoretically trigger video the fire tv cube is available for preorder today priced at one hundred nineteen dollars ninety nine cents and it ships june twentyfirst of course if you're a prime customer you can order today and tomorrow and get it for just eighty nine ninety nine real quickly there's another amazon story from today that i wanted to flag jeff bezos and company have bought the rights to exclusively broadcast twenty english premier league football matches per season for three seasons starting twenty nineteen yes by football i mean soccer if you're.