http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/technology/farhads-and-mikes-week-in-tech-samsungs-exploding-products-and-twitters-fizzling-deal.html 2016-10-08 15:58:35 Farhad’s and Mike’s Week in Tech: Samsung’s Exploding Products and Twitter’s Fizzling Deal Mike calls Yahoo’s surveillance predicament a “flaming garbage fire” and hopes Alexa and her A.I. ilk are friendlier than HAL. Soon, Farhad will be in Asia. === Each Saturday, Farhad Manjoo and Mike Isaac, technology reporters at The New York Times, review Farhad Mike Also, man, I need to get some Southeast Asian writing gigs. Can you at least bring me back a souvenir? Farhad That’s according to The Verge, Let me put on my tech pundit hat and spin some commentary on this issue: This seems bad. Like, really bad. If your products start exploding, you’re in trouble. Mike: That, or Samsung should make a large investment in a fireproof pants start-up. Farhad Mike: Farhad: So what’s the deal? Is anyone interested in buying this service? And if not, what happens next? Mike Farhad I mean, that makes sense, right? Mike: What a flaming garbage fire of a situation. That said, at least Yahoo email accounts are not literally exploding on Southwest Airlines flights. Just figuratively, I guess. Farhad The company’s new phone I haven’t gotten to use either of these things yet, but I have to say, I’m kind of excited about them. Are you? Mike I was probably looking at it wrong. If you believe in the kind of future envisioned by Google, Amazon and Apple, search and interaction will probably be governed by a persistent, semi-omniscient entity that sits inside our living rooms. That’s the locus of our home lives right now, where we convene with the family after work or school. Where we watch TV or listen to music or, dare I say it, read a book on the couch. These companies are focused on that one place where speaking out loud to an assistant makes the most immediate sense. I hardly see these assistants staying confined to the living room. Eventually, after getting used to the creature scheduling comforts that Alexa and Assistant afford us, these persistent bots will be put into more common use outside of the living room: the kitchen, the shower, the garage, even our cars. It’s already happening in fits and starts on our mobile devices. I imagine it will go far beyond even that. Think of it as Farhad: Mike: Farhad: