Apple Must Drop App Store External Payment Fees - DTNSB 5010
33:02 Share

That's future you, peace of mind. And everyone can save on a brand new phone on MyPlan when you trade in any phone from one of our top brands. That's new phone, peace of mind.

Because at Verizon, whether you're already a customer or you're just joining us, we got you. Visit Verizon today. Price guarantee applies to then current base monthly rate. Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers. Every idea starts with a problem. Morby Parker's was simple. Glasses are too expensive.

So they set out to change that by designing glasses in-house and selling directly to customers. They're able to offer prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable. Warby Parker glasses are made from premium materials like impact resistant polycarbonate and custom acetate. And they start at just $95, including prescription lenses. Get glasses made from the good stuff. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.

What does the term digital workplace mean to you? In today's world of AI, robotics, and AR, it's much more than an office full of people on computers. It can be anywhere from a factory floor to the top of a crane to the cockpit of an F1 car. Wherever your digital workplace may be, TeamViewer's mission is to make work, work better.

How? By securely connecting your people with the data, expertise, or insights they need in real time to make work more efficient. By automating and streamlining IT and OT support to fix problems before they happen to make work more productive. And by bringing all the possibilities of a secure and flexible digital workplace to all your people everywhere to make work more innovative.

So discover how TeamViewer can make work, work better, wherever it happens across your business. Learn more at teamviewer.com slash workbetter.

So when you dive into your next car project, start with eBay. All the parts you need at prices you'll love. You can get them at eBay.com.

Guaranteed to fit every time. eBay, things people love.

This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, May 1st, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories, and help each other understand. Today, Sean Hollister tells us about map tech in Japan and Apple takes a loss in court. Yeah, they do. I'm Jason Howell. I'm Wynne Twettnow. Let's start with what you need to know with a big story. ♪

A federal judge has strongly criticized Apple for knowingly and willfully violating a 2021 court order that stemmed from the Epic Games trial. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers found that Apple and its VP of Finance, Alex Roman, misled the court.

by lying under oath about when and how the company chose to impose a 27% fee on purchases made outside its app store. Now, Roman had falsely testified that the decision to impose that fee was made in early 2024 as a straightforward response to the court's injunction and that the company had no intention to circumvent that injunction. However,

Internal business documents that were presented in the case show how Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, purposefully chose that policy much earlier in June 2023 as a way to preserve Apple's revenues from app commissions while also technically allowing external payment links.

Now, this is a major victory for app developers and, of course, Epic Games. It forces Apple to allow developers to provide payment options outside the App Store without facing any additional workaround fees. And not only that, it's effective immediately per the order. It does not allow for a stay. And that essentially means that Apple has to comply with this immediately.

and has to do so while Apple works through the inevitable appeals process, which I don't think has been announced officially yet, but you know for certain that Apple's going to do this. But I think what's really interesting about this is kind of the contrast between here in the US and the ruling and in the European Union, the regulations there, the differences between that. Here in the US, it's basically a ban. It's barring Apple from imposing any new commissions whatsoever.

on off app purchases entirely. The DMA over in the European Union does allow Apple to charge a quote, reasonable fee that reflects the actual cost to Apple. And they're kind of part of the decision making there. But here in the US, no more fees. So big time difference between how the two, how Apple has to play the game in both locations.

Is part of that difference the fact that – and it seems that initially with the initial ruling – and I actually loved a quote from Judge Rogers that said, Cook chose poorly. You chose poorly. Finger wag, finger wag. Yeah.

And it seems that their initial ruling was, and I kind of missed it a little bit, but it was not necessarily the worst ruling for them that they had actually several of the charges have been dismissed or like the kind of like they kind of they had like a fairly like I wouldn't say totally negative ruling.

but that the problem right now is that they kind of flouted that ruling. And it's the fact of like the lying in court that is really getting them in trouble as opposed to, you know, the actual practices themselves. Like, so this is like a point of, you know, like I guess, lack of compliance with that's, that's the right way of saying that, but a lack of compliance. And like, again, like the perjury, that is the big issue. And so this is really opening things up for developers. Is that correct? Is that a correct assessment? Like if they had just not,

and did like a good faith effort, would it have been as severe or was it this severe the whole time? I mean, that's now mind you, I spent probably a good 45 minutes trying to understand the ins and outs of this story because I am not super close to actually

As you and I both well know, we're both Android people and we live a lot of our lives in the Android universe. And so there's a little bit of learning for me. But yeah, that's my understanding that largely a big part of what's getting Apple in trouble here is that they –

Essentially, you know, they essentially thought about how to get around the thing before the thing happened. And then they lied about that plan and pretended like, oh, this is just something we came up with in response. Let's just do that. Meanwhile, it had been orchestrated almost a year prior.

And you can't lie in court when it comes to this. Also, we were talking before we fired off the recording, it's always hilarious to me that time and time again, companies forget that they're putting these things in emails. They're putting these things in documentation. And that stuff does get subpoenaed and will get you into trouble. So it's just interesting that it happens time and time again. I'm curious to know, though, when

Because you are a developer, you're tapped into kind of the developer universe and the developer community. I'm curious if you have any sense of how developers are responding to this. I realize it's Apple. It's not Android. But are you hearing any fuzz around this? And again, also my bias is towards folks that do Android, although my team on my job is like both sides. And I think generally we're all celebrating this.

And we've talked about this for years. And a similar thing is happening, of course, has happened and is happening on the Google side with the Google Play Store. But I think this is just a straight up win, you know, and just co-locally. I've worked at a lot of different places, you know, both small shops, big shops, and just period, like 30% fees can be a lot, especially for independent developers. So it's always felt kind of skeezy, for lack of a better way of saying it, that, you

especially on these platforms to have that much commission taken off of your in-app purchases. It's bad and it doesn't scale very well, right? Like big publishers, like

I don't know, like Adobe, I'd say like maybe, I don't know. I don't know if CapCut has in-app purchases, but you know, the 30% fee is like not palatable, but maybe for a larger developer publisher, it's, you know, it's the price of doing business.

But for independent devs who are just trying to get their businesses started or doing that as a side hustle, 30% is a lot. It can be prohibitive. Very prohibitive. And especially with this part, with the third-party stores, it's so interesting because a lot of places that I've worked –

have their own ecosystem of products and have their own ways of, have their own whole commerce side, whether that's subscription-based, whether that's like in-app purchases. And the rules that we've had to follow to

to, you know, try to like present our business. Like I think when I worked at Trello, we could, we, we, we had to be very careful about copy was in the app. We had to be very careful about the way we linked to like how you could like, you know, pay for like a premium tier or like, you know, credits for things. It was such, there's so many hurdles to jump through and it's ridiculous because that is friction that keeps people from paying us, which, um,

As someone who works doing this for a living, I would very much appreciate it when people do like to pay us and make it as frictionless as possible. So yeah, this is all very good things in my opinions, because a lot of times it is, I mean, it's their store. And obviously Apple and Google have made this mobile landscape and this mobile ecosystem and this mobile commerce world that we live in. But at the same time,

You know, it's kind of evident, at least from the ruling that they've been using that to their advantage. And they have very much like made it difficult for some of us that are trying to play in both worlds and trying to make, you know, like.

a living off our software, they've made it harder. So I think unabashedly, I don't think you'd find too many devs that would complain about this, whether it's a reduction fees or no fees at all. I think unabashedly, we're all very happy about this.

So then devs in some way, shape or form see Epic Games as kind of a hero for, I mean, I'm just guessing. Unexpectedly. I mean, your mileage might vary on Epic Games for sure. But I think for sure, like, I think it does take someone like Epic Games with a property like Fortnite to push forward. And if you were curious about Epic Games' next move in light of this ruling, well, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that we,

kind of extending an olive branch, announced that we will return Fortnite to the US iOS app store next week. He did attach a global rollout to one condition. Apple must extend its court-ordered commission-free payment framework worldwide.

allowing Epic Games to direct its users to purchase in-game currency through Epic's website and bypassing Apple's 15% to 30% commission on in-app purchases. So kind of a big proviso, but, you know. We'll see about that. I mean, I think that is really a big question, you know, that constantly comes up for me as these kind of weirdos

worldwide, different countries charging different things as far as anti-competitive behavior, this, that. And the other thing is how splintered a company's approach to all these things becomes. And I guess if you're of a certain size, you probably have the resources to maneuver that. But it's a very complex minefield. And it really does make you wonder, does this

incentivize or push, nudge, whatever you want to call it, Apple into the direction to offer something like this worldwide. I mean, that's a big if because this is a huge, we're talking multi-billion dollar revenue loss on a yearly basis here in the US alone. Does that mean that Apple then chooses to increase service fees in other ways or to look for other kind of solutions to regain that money? Because it's not just

It doesn't just go away. It's part of Apple's business. It's part of what they've built the business around. They expect to have it in some way, shape, or form. So I'll be curious to see what that materializes in going forward. Absolutely. Well, DTNS is made possible by you, the listener. Thanks to Howard Yermish, John Atwood, Pat, and we need to welcome new patron, Girmal. Welcome. Welcome to the gates. Welcome.

Picture this. You're in the garage, hands covered in grease, just finished up tuning your engine with a part you found on eBay. And you realize, you know what? I could also use new brakes. So where do you go next? Back to eBay. You can find anything there. It's unreal. Wipers, headlights, even cold air intakes. It's all there. And you've got eBay guaranteed fit. You order a part, and if it doesn't fit, send it back. Simple as that. Look.

Look, DIY fixes can be major. Doesn't matter if it's just maintenance or a major mod. You got it, especially when things are guaranteed to fit. So when you dive into your next car project, start with eBay. All the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. eBay. Things people love.

We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives, well, better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it. But the outdoors is closer than we realize. With AllTrails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently with offline maps and on-trail navigation. Download the free app today.

BetterHelp Online Therapy bought this 30-second ad to remind you, right now, wherever you are, to unclench your jaw, relax your shoulders, take a deep breath in and out.

Feels better, right? That's 15 seconds of self-care. Imagine what you could do with more. Visit betterhelp.com slash random podcast for 10% off your first month of therapy. No pressure, just help. But for now, just relax.

Worried about what ingredients are hiding in your groceries? Let us take the guesswork out. We're Thrive Market, the online grocery store with the highest quality standards in the industry. We restrict 1,000 plus ingredients so you can trust that you'll only find the best high quality organic and sustainable brands all free of the junk. With savings up to 30% off and fast carbon neutral shipping, you get top trusted groceries at your door.

And you can stop worrying about what your kids get their hands on. Start shopping at thrivemarket.com slash podcast for 30% off your first order and a free gift. What makes a great pair of glasses? At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost. Their designer quality frames start at $95, including prescription lenses, plus scratch-resistant, smudge-resistant, and anti-reflective coatings, and UV protection, and free adjustments for life.

To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses, or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you, head over to warbyparker.com. That's warbyparker.com. The gates of DTNS. There's more we need to know today. Let's get to the briefs. Microsoft announced major price increases for its Xbox Series S and X consoles, controllers, and some new first-party games, effective immediately.

The Xbox Series X is $100 more at $599.99. The basic Series S jumps from $299.99 to $379.99. And the one terabyte Series S increases to $429.99.

Standard Xbox wireless controllers now start at $64.99. Finally, starting this holiday season, expect first-party games to be priced at $79.99, up from $69.99. Microsoft cites rising development costs and...

Challenging market conditions for the increases. Oh, boy. That's one of those phrases that we're going to get sick of hearing by the end of the year. Yeah, challenging market conditions. We all know kind of what you're talking about. Wow, these are like huge increases, especially I think the first party games. I don't know. I don't know the last time you were like AAA gaming, Jason, but...

It's kind of rough out there. I mean, I know cost of living, et cetera, but wow, $80 basically for first-party games is kind of... Games are a lot more complex and complicated now, too. So the developer, the hours and the expertise that goes into creating these games of such complexity, they raise, too. So I understand...

To a certain degree. I mean, Microsoft isn't alone here. I think the new Switch games are going to be upwards of $79.99 for some of the first-party titles. So it's kind of like a signal, I think, to all of them that, okay, we're there now. We've officially made it there now. This is just what we charge for first-party games. No, that's really fair. As a developer, I should be more, again, as I was just complaining that I need a program to eat, that I should not be so...

Pot calling the kettle black, but for sure. I'm sure it's a little of both, though, is all I'm saying. Also, you reading that copy was my challenge to you to see how many times you could say 99. Turns out, a lot. Yeah.

I know it was discussed yesterday very briefly, but we have a few more details regarding Gemini possibly coming to iOS. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai testified in the federal antitrust trial that Google is aiming to finalize a deal with Apple by mid 2025. That's mid this year to integrate its Gemini AI as an option on iPhones.

That would potentially appear alongside Apple's own AI models, as well as OpenAI's ChatGPT that's already integrated with Siri. Bacai confirmed ongoing discussions with Apple CEO Tim Cook throughout 2024, last year, and is hopeful that an agreement would be made in time for Apple's WWDC just next month. Be really curious to see if that actually happens.

And just really quick, because we're talking a little bit about Google and chatbots, Google is displaying ads within conversations on some third-party AI chatbots. After testing with AI startups iAsk and Linear earlier this year, Google has confirmed that AdSense for Search is driving the ads appearing in those chatbot conversations. So there you go, ads in your chatbots.

Well, we were going to get to this point eventually. So here we are. I mean, you knew it was coming, right? Well, Meta's latest earnings report saw the company beat expectations in the first quarter of the year. Strong advertising sales are fueling a major push into artificial intelligence, even as costs rise due to new tariffs.

Meta's advertising business makes up 98% of the company's revenue, and much of that is being directed at the company's aggressive expansion in AI across its properties. And now the newly released Meta AI app.

The company plans to invest up to $72 billion in AI, more than the $65 billion Zuckerberg announced earlier this year. And Zuckerberg also announced that the Meta AI app will soon introduce a paid premium tier, as well as, you guessed it, advertising. The premium tier would unlock enhanced computing power and additional features, while the free tier would be supported by ads.

I mean, again, this ties into the previous story. Like you had to know that ads were coming to these things eventually. And especially when, you know, the premium versions cost upwards of $20, you know, if not more, these companies know that they can monetize with ads in these. I imagine they can monetize pretty easily based on the systems they already have. Kind of like, you know, we were talking with AdSense for search and just kind of inserting that into the chatbot experience. So,

Yeah, gonna see more of this. It's a thing. Microsoft's latest earnings report revealed an 18% surge in profits to $25.8 billion, 13% jump in revenue to $709 billion. What does this mean? Well, in light of all that, essentially, the company is looking at its

AI strategy and recalibrating, slowing down its aggressive expansion in AI capacity and data center build-out. Microsoft still plans, though, this isn't like Microsoft saying, we're done with AI. By no means is it that. They still plan to spend around $80 billion on AI infrastructure this year, but is focusing more on efficiency and aligning its build-out with actual customer demand. So they're really kind of taking a more measured approach to

to their AI infrastructure growth plan, kind of slowing things down and being more, I don't know, more intentional with where they direct their resources when it comes to AI versus what a lot of big tech companies right now are doing is just like, faster, faster, move quicker. We got to be bigger and better and all those things. Microsoft's being a little measured here.

Well, JetBrains, known for its popular development tools and maker of my favorite personal favorite language, Kotlin, has released Mellum, Mellum, sorry, M-E-L-L-U-M, its first open source AI coding model on Hugging Face.

Trained on over 4 trillion tokens from sources like GitHub and Wikipedia, Melum does require fine-tuning before use and is not production-ready out of the box. JetBrains notes that Melum's suggestions are imperfect and encourages developers to experiment and contribute to its ongoing development.

Yeah. Well, I wonder, you know, for developers, like it's coming from a company like JetBrains that has a lot of, I mean, I hear you speak so positively about Kotlin and JetBrains, and I know that you're not the only one out there. Does something like this coming from a JetBrains kind of...

have the potential to kind of win over skeptical developers? It does. And I'm one of them. And I think what helps is that JetBrains is very well known for its tooling. And a lot of it is also kind of like a lot of with a lot of things about AI is context. And I mean, that actually almost literally is that the reason that it's not quite production ready out of the box is that a lot of it has to do with suggesting to you that

based on your own project and your own personal context, which is why I think that it kind of is easier because JetBrains has always announced that they're going this route. They're going for a lot of reinforcement, for a lot of feedback, and they kind of are the source for a lot of things, Kotlin very literally and specific.

But I think that they're approaching it from a way of like being a tool, but also not just generating a bunch of like, you know, things from the wider internet, but trying to like tune it. So yes, it does make me a lot more comfortable. And this is kind of what I wish the tech that we had kind of come at before rather than starting with vibe coding and trying to whittle our way down to like, you know, this, but yeah, I'm excited. Yeah.

Yeah, I brought it up. Sorry. Yeah. Every time I hear that word, I'm like, you know, that's going to end up in like one of those year end like worthy year thing.

We'll roll our eyes in a couple of years at it. Pinterest is rolling out new features to address the surge. I'm sorry, by the way, there is a ton of AI news as I'm reading through this, but it was just kind of the news that we were given. Sometimes it just works out that way. Pinterest rolling out new features to address the surge of AI generated images that have overwhelmed the platform. I hear so many people complain about this. Like Pinterest is nothing but just a bunch of AI slop these days is what people say.

Frustrated users are seeking more authentic kinds of inspiration, and as a result, the company is now going to label images detected to be created or altered by generative AI with an AI-modified stamp. In the lower left corner, the platform is also going to analyze metadata and proprietary classifiers in order to detect AI content that doesn't show obvious markers.

And users, of course, if they post something that's been wrongfully labeled in their mind, you can appeal to get your content unlabeled or whatever you want to call that. Pinterest is also testing a feature to allow users to see fewer AI-generated results in their feeds. So I think Pinterest users, people who are really dedicated to the platform, I think a lot of people would be pretty happy about this if it works.

All right, well, we have one hardware story for you to wrap up today. Onyx International's new Books Mira Pro is a $1,900, 25.3-inch color e-ink monitor with a third 200 by 1800 resolution, a 16 by 9 aspect ratio, two HDMI ports and a USB-C port, display port, and a sleek design that resembles Apple's Studio Display. As this is e-ink, yeah.

It's likely a solid choice for eye comfort, but, you know, not so great for vibrant color or fast motion graphics. The monitor shipped directly from Onyx's Hong Kong headquarters, and the company does warn that, quote, some countries may levy tariffs on imported goods. You know, not saying who, but some countries do, signaling a bit of a warning for U.S. buyers.

I have the Books Palma, which is a much, much smaller. It's not a monitor. It's a smartphone-sized e-reader that is really awesome. And looking at this monitor, I mean, you know, it's a full-size monitor, but it's color e-ink. And I was like, oh, yeah. Haven't really seen many of those. It turns out there's like one of the main competitors is a company called Dasung. It has a 25.3-inch monitor.

e-ink screen for around $2,000 and maybe one other, but this is a category that's ripe for some development. And so I would love to use this, see what it's like. As another e-ink fan, I'm super excited. I didn't even know this was possible. Give your eyes a break. Well, those are the essentials for today. Let's dive a little deeper.

All right. Today we get to part two of Tom's discussion with Sean Hollister about the tech they used during their recent visit to Japan. Any other, before we wrap up, any other technologies? I feel like Google Maps has been a really good one for transit.

as far as like being able to tell you like what trains to take, what exit to come in and out of at the stations, what car to board if you want to do a fast transfer even. Yeah, I wish Google Maps was a little bit more curated in terms of like the walking directions through train stations and things like that. Because when you're talking about, you know, an 11 story, 12 story building, like the immense and amazing,

massive and amazing Kyoto station that we're near right now, it would help to know not only that it's on the 11th floor, but that, you know, if you walk into this particular department store and exit this particular place, I feel like in certain cases, Google is fudging it a little bit and kind of being like, oh, well, this pathway, you go into the station, right? And go up to the 11th. But, but, but...

As far as the transit routes, it'll tell you not only which trains you should take, which combinations of trains and buses, but how much that journey is going to cost, what your boarding position might be, which platform the train is on, what its destination is going to be. So you know what to look for on the signs, whether it's in Japanese or English, which car you're

you might want to be on so that when you get to your destination, it'll be easier to depart or it'll be less busy in that particular car. All of this built into Google Maps now for Japanese transport. When I came in 2016, which was the first time I came to Japan...

The train system was the biggest point of frustration because Google Maps did not work that way. Nothing worked that way. And so trying to look at various third-party apps, I think Japan Rail had an app, and you try to puzzle out like, okay, I think it's this line. And then wait, is that the destination that we want to go? Or is that the destination? And you inevitably get on the wrong direction at least once. That's all kind of gone with the level of information in these networks.

We did this wrong destination a few times, but it was usually for lack of looking at Google Maps, not because we looked at it and it steered us wrong. On top of that, the IC card system, if you get it working properly...

is amazing. When I was here 20 years ago, I think even when I was here 13 years ago, it was not yet a unified IC card system. Yes, you could maybe use your IC card to get all around Tokyo's JR and possibly Tokyo's subway. But if you went out

west to Kansai where we are now in Kibu with Kyoto. I don't think that was unified yet. There were all kinds of different railways. There still are. You'll get off of one subway in Kyoto and get on a different rail line within the same station and you'll have to tap out and you'll have to tap in

And now that doesn't involve paper tickets or different cards. You tap on with your card, you tap off, you tap onto the next line, you tap off. It'll do all the calculation for you automatically. I think you can do that with non-reserved seats on the Shinkansen as well. You can do that with the buses as

we got on a bus in Kyoto and we're like, oh, wait, we didn't tap to pay when we got on. Oh boy, is this one cash only? No, it wasn't. We just had to tap off when we got off the bus. That's how they do it here, apparently. Yeah, if you're in the fare zone, you only tap on exit. I found the...

integration with phones to be the biggest thing in 2019 when I came. And it's still the same now, but it is one of my favorite things about the IC card. IC stands for integrated circuit, but it's basically a version of NFC called Felica, but it's just like NFC where it's a little chip. It doesn't have to have power. And if your phone supports it, which all iPhones do, all pixels do, and Android phones purchased in Japan usually do,

You can just use your phone as the card. You can add the card to your phone and you don't have to unlock your phone to use it. You just tap the phone and it activates the Suica card or the Passmo card or whichever version you have. And the best part that's new on this trip is it will give you an alert that says, oh, you're in the middle of a transit. The amount left on your card is this much.

And that way, you know, like, oh, I haven't tapped out yet. And then when you tap out, it'll say, ah, okay, you've tapped out. Here's how much is left on your card. So convenient to just be able to use the phone to do that. Or you can use smartwatches as well. Although...

I was able to use the smartwatch and the phone both last trip. This trip, when I started to activate it on my watch, it said, well, if you put it on your watch, it removes it from your phone. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to leave it on my phone for now. Yeah. The same with the Clipper card in San Francisco, unfortunately. They will not let you have your IC card both places on the phone and on the watch. But I'm so jealous of Tom, too, hearing that you're getting it on your phone at all because I'm here with my US Samsung Galaxy S25. Yeah.

And I don't have any of that. I had to do an IC, like an actual physical card instead, which are easy to pick up at the airport. There was a machine there. It took like two minutes to get my card with preloaded with a bunch of money on it. And all I do is I take it to any station. If I'm not going to be able to get through the gate, there are machines right there at almost every station to just add a little bit more fare to it. I stick my bill in or stick my other card in and I top it up very quickly.

And I, yes, I am the worst because I have a pixel and an iPhone. So they both work. Uh, and if you, and if you are able to do that, you can, you can actually re add a value from the phone as well. Uh, so whatever you have an internet connection, which is almost everywhere, uh, you could, you can just top it off there. Uh,

I think that covers all the highlight technology stuff. There's also like food ordering in restaurants where you have tap screens. There was the Sushi Row place we went with those huge, giant touchscreens. So it had a virtual conveyor belt instead of the sushi being on the conveyor belt. You just watched it. And then when you wanted something, you tap it and there was a conveyor belt and they would send out

Exactly the one that you had ordered right then. Anything else you could think of? Unlike a real conveyor belt, you can also swipe backwards. You can be like, oh, wow, that piece of sushi flew past me. I'm going to swipe back to where it was. You wouldn't miss it. Any other things you could think of before we wrap up? Oh, boy. Well, here's a low light. If you do come here and you want to do the Shinkansen, the big fast bullet trains, you

Oh, they are so wonderful, so smooth, despite going 200 miles per hour. Maybe consider loading that onto your IC card or your phone instead of working with QR codes, because we decided to do their QR code machine readers today.

A few things about that. One, if you find yourself in a station, like, say, Himeji Station by Himeji Castle, where they do not have the QR code readers for your Shinkansen tickets when you're trying to get into the station to begin with, because it is primarily a JR station and not just a Shinkansen station, you might have to physically flag somebody down to let you through and give you a special paper ticket. Also, if you're using your QR code,

You still have to get a piece of paper from the ticket readers as you go through. But that piece of paper, it turns out, does not count as your ticket and you cannot use it at the next machine. It's only your receipt. So you will then have to scan your QR code again at the next spot.

But on the website and in the app, there is a way to assign any reserve ticket that you've purchased for the Shinkansen to an IC card or to a phone that acts as your IC card. You can just type in the number of your card, assign it there. And then when you get to the station, you can tap into the train station. You can tap into the Shinkansen station. You can tap out. You can tap out.

and not be charged a massive amount of money because it thinks that you got on halfway across the country and are now leaving somewhere else. Just a theoretical, certainly not exactly what happened to us.

More than once. But it's good. Now we know and we can warn others, assign it to the Suica card because that is much more valuable. Sean, thanks so much. Thanks so much for inviting me along on the trip, first of all. And thanks for taking a little time to chat with me here. Appreciate it, man. It's so much fun. Thanks for coming. If people want to follow you, where should they go?

I am on Blue Sky, Sean Hollister, Blue Sky Social. There's some periods in there somewhere. I am also on The Verge where I do my writing. Fantastic. Thanks. Thanks again, man. Thanks.

All right. Well, we listen to our supporters because we make this show for you. So if you have a few minutes, please fill out our annual DTNS survey. Let us know what about the DTNS family of shows is working for you. And honestly, even what isn't, it's fun to do and really helps us shape the show. Go to dailytechnewsshow.com slash survey. Thank you.

Worried about what ingredients are hiding in your groceries? Let us take the guesswork out. We're Thrive Market, the online grocery store with the highest quality standards in the industry. We restrict 1,000 plus ingredients, so you can trust that you'll only find the best high-quality organic and sustainable brands all free of the junk.

With savings up to 30% off and fast carbon neutral shipping, you get top trusted groceries at your door and you can stop worrying about what your kids get their hands on. Start shopping at thrivemarket.com slash podcast for 30% off your first order and a free gift.

It's Nikayla from Side Hustle Pro, and I want to tell you about something exciting. You're watching EveryDollar, and Walmart Business helps you stretch each one. From office supplies to snacks and cleaning gear, you'll get everyday low prices, plus easy bulk ordering and fast delivery. And with tools like spend tracking and multi-user accounts, staying organized is simple. Save time, money, and hassle at business.walmart.com. It's free to join.

We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. And today, fellow Jason Stevens is helping us understand. Jason writes, I configured a slate truck on their site. And the thing that stuck with me was the BYO infotainment. I think it's brilliant. I'm going to use my phone anyway. And they even have the foresight to include a built-in holder for it. You can even upgrade to a tablet holder.

My phone is always up to date. The apps are always up to date. And if I keep the vehicle for 10 years, I'll probably get three phones over that period of time. Is the infotainment system in a vehicle purchased today going to be up to date in 10 years? No, it will not be. No, it will not be. No, no, no. Unfortunately, that's the unfortunate truth. It's kind of like TVs that have the smart TV function built into it, which is like 99.9% of TVs nowadays. Um,

And they're up to date when you buy it, but it does not take long for those things to get sloggy and slow. And I think it's kind of the same thing for these infotainment systems inside of a vehicle. Yeah, it's really fun for the first three years, and then later you're just jealous of all the new cars. And it's just not an easy thing to swap out a new car if you just find the infotainment a little bit dated. It's not a heavy lift. It's a very heavy lift. Right.

I got to say, looking at a picture of this slate vehicle, that's a pretty cool looking truck, I got to say. Just saying. Well, what are you thinking about? Have some insight into a story? Share it with us at feedback at dailytechnewsshow.com.

All right. Thank you to Sean Hollister, of course. Thank you to fellow Jason Stevens for contributing to today's show. And thank you for being along for Daily Tech News Show. The show is made possible by our patrons on patreon.com slash DTNS. Don't forget, you can get it ad-free on Patreon and Substack. We'll talk to you tomorrow. The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

If you work as a manufacturing facilities engineer, installing a new piece of equipment can be as complex as the machinery itself. From prep work to alignment and testing, it's your team's job to put it all together. That's why it's good to have Grainger on your side. With industrial-grade products and next-day delivery, Grainger helps ensure you have everything you need close at hand through every step of the installation. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.