Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

The Skeptics Guide #742 - Sep 28 2019 (Ad Free) (Patreon)

Published:
2019-09-28 18:58:11
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
haven't archived this post yet. have a subscription? use the importer!

Downloads

  • skepticast2019-09-28adfree-iottgjk.mp3
  • audio_preview.wav

Missing 1 full-res photo, 2 files, as this post has not yet been imported.

Content

5-10 Year: Dinochicken

News Items: Fat Shaming, Warp Drive, TVs and Phones Communicating, Second Interstellar Object

Who's That Noisy

Your Questions and E-mails: Survivorship Bias

Science or Fiction 

Files

Previews only

Comments

lothian53

Was thinking about the app that detects advertisements... Instead of supersonic sounds, how about just using Shazam like tech to identify the commercial?

Josh Raab

In reference to the advertising and our telephones listening, was a bit baffled by the conversation. A few comments: (1) Yes, Shazam is used for this, many commercials even feature a Shazam logo and if you pull your phone out, the app already is displaying the product (2) you don't need special speakers to play un-noticable sounds, they don't need to be outside the range of human hearing, they just need to be recognizable to trigger the phone. . . even if they were outside the range, any speaker can do this. (3) It can be one way, the trigger does not need to be mutually agreed upon. For instance, say I’m paying a show to display my ad and they say that 20million people will see the ad. If I want to verify this, I can pay shazam to recognize the intro music to the show and then report back to me how many people were actually watching the commercial break. (4) This exists and still does. I worked on a book with netflix, since they wouldn’t tell me viewership for the show, I had to find it myself. I found an analytics company which listened for theme music from shows on netflix and then could report how many people were sitting and watching the shows. . . here is a link to the company’s twitter https://twitter.com/SymphonyAM: “unique behavioral insights through single-source passive measurement of TV, Mobile, PC and Social behavior.”

Josh Raab

Furthermore, the discussion that only "malicious" apps would do this, and that apple would weed them out, is not at all accurate. There are hundreds of ways to get non-malicious access to microphones and then use audio however you want. Whether it's a messaging app, a video editing app, or even a video game app, there are reasonable ways to get microphone access and from there—for alternative revenue streams— the company can do whatever they want with that audio access.

Lorne Schneider

Sorry but I can't comment on the "Lens" thing, what was the point of that? It played for about 10 secs.