TechFirst with John Koetsier

Can we really decentralize the internet with blockchain? The internet was originally designed to be decentralized ... and that’s how it was supposed to work for emergencies and disasters. Lately, it's been getting more and more centralized controlled by major corporations, as well as countries like Russia and China. One company thinks it has a solution.  In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with the cofounder and CEO of ThreeFold, Kristof de Spiegeleer, who thinks the internet should be like electricity: available and almost-free everywhere. But with a key difference: enabled by all, in a sort of mesh networking scenario. His not-so-secret weapon? "Technically we have 18,000 CPU cores and 90 million gigabytes, which is a lot of capacity. It's probably between five and ten times more than all of the capacity of all the blockchain projects together."

What are the top reasons you want to keep working from home after Coronavirus? Here's what about 150,000 people said in a survey. Time with family (34%) No commute (29%) Flexible schedule (17%) Saving money (11%) More productive (5%) Less office politics (4%) Listen to the show for the full story, or check it out in my Forbes column.

Why games are making record revenues in a recession, with Unity VP Julie Shumaker. In a recession revenues generally go down. That’s not been the case in 2020, at least for games. Games have been seeing record-high revenues over the past few months ... we'll chat about what's hot and why ... What we talk about:  - First off, what happened with games over the past 3-5 months?  - What kind of games grew the most?  - Weekends and weekdays kinda flipped. Why?  - Revenue was up … how?  - What’s different about “pandemic gamers?”  - Could you basically track COVID-19 across the world in game downloads and sessions?  - Are games recession-proof? And … the world-famous TechFirst 10 in 5 … 10 questions, 5 minutes  - Favorite piece of tech gear in your house  - Can’t-do-without-it tech that you wear  - Android or iOS?  - EV or gas?  - Mac or Windows?  - GIF or JIF?  - Favorite tech news source?  - Do you want a self-driving car or do you want to drive yourself, forever?  - Elon Musk offers you a trip to Mars. In or out?  - Alexa or Hey Google or Hey Siri?

Switzerland is the safest country in the world right now for COVID-19. South Sudan is, according to a massive 250-page report, the most dangerous nation. The United States? It ranks number 58, just behind Romania, and two places ahead of Russia. The Forbes story I reference in this episode is available here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/05/the-100-safest-countries-in-the-world-for-covid-19/ The full report, with methodology, is here: https://www.dkv.global/covid-safety-assesment-200-regions 

Glasses haven’t changed much in 500 years: Take glass, grind it to a shape, refract the angle of light impacting your eye … see better, hopefully. But a new Apple patent, however, seems to indicate that Apple is working on glasses that will change as your prescription changes. And just maybe … do even more. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we’re joined by Robert Scoble, now former Chief strategy officer, Infinite Retina, and co-author of "The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution."

Everyone in my family uses a Mac, most of them on laptops. That includes my two sons, one in university and one in high school, both of whom are doing school from home these days. So I didn’t think when I ordered a new MacBook Pro recently I’d have to return it almost immediately. And I didn’t think Apple would completely and utterly ignore the meaning of the word “Pro.” Unfortunately ... both are true.

Is 5G safe or is it dangerous to humans, animals, and the environment?  There are a lot of concerns and worries about 5G. Pictures of dead birds near cell towers. Even snake oil products to protect you … USB sticks with a "bio shield." In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we’re going to get the facts by talking to a research scientist in Belgium. What we'll talk about:  - is 5G dangerous  - what is the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation?  - how much RF radiation does 5G expose you to?  - is that dangerous, over time? How much would be required to be dangerous?  - does 5G give users more radiation than non-users?  - should we stop the 5G roll-out?  - how are you testing the effects and impact of 5G?

You’re an NBA all-star ... what do you do when the league’s shut down thanks to Coronavirus? If you’re Chicago Bull and 2-time NBA dunk champion Zach Lavine … you work out … you play Call of Duty or Apex Legends, and apparently … you give away free JBL headphones. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Zach as well as JBL VP Chris Epple and learn more. We also get Zach's take on some of the most important matters in tech ... GIF or JIF ... EV or gas ... Windows or Mac ... iOS or Android ... and whether he'd accept a free ride to Mars from Elon Musk.

Massively social platforms built around gaming or video or news might be our new way to experience entertainment. We've already seen concerts in Fortnite -- Travis Scott, a month or so ago. Now we're going to see movies being screened in Fortnite. Christopher Nolan, the filmmaker behind Inception, The Dark Knight, and Interstellar will be bringing “one of his iconic films” to the massively popular Fortnite game this summer. And guess what: No risk of COVID-19!

(cross-posted from my future39 podcast) Today we plug our computers in to power. Tomorrow, we might plug ourselves into them. AR and VR are changing how we see the world. AI and augmentation and brain-machine interfaces will change how we live, how we work, and how we play. Cathy and I chat about HTC Vive, Magic Leap, Oculus Quest, brain-machine interfaces, Upload (the new show on Amazon Prime), and augmented intelligence. We also talk about Apple and where Apple's upcoming product will fit, as well as the convergence of AR and VR.