Technological World for April 22: Tracking COVID-19 with smartphones, the problem with tracking COVID-19 with smartphones, Quibi takes its shot, get longer free trials for Crave and Shudder, Ada and the Lost Highway, Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One X revealed

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This week, a look at video streaming service Quibi, extended trial periods for other streaming services, Ada and the Lost Horizon, and the Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One X. But first, how smartphones can play a role in tracking COVID-19.

How smartphones may be used to help track COVID-19

On April 10, Apple and Google announced a joint effort to use smartphones to help with contact tracing people who test positive for COVID-19.

This is all opt-in, so if you want to participate, or have the functionality available to you, you’ll need to download an app that will be provided by official public health organizations. These won’t come until later in May.

The plan uses Bluetooth protocols, as opposed to GPS or Wi-fi location data, which helps to make the system more anonymous, because it doesn’t have anything to do with your location, but what devices are in your immediate area.

If you use the app, your phone will transmit and receive Bluetooth signals with other phones near you and keeps track of them for two weeks. If you are diagnosed and agree to share that information, your phone will ping all the devices it was close to.

The partnership between the two tech companies means that this will all work across platforms, regardless of whether your phone is Android or iOS.

Apple and Google have said that a longer-term plan is to have this kind of functionality built in to smartphone settings.

A similar approach has been used in Singapore since late March.

Why you should be wary of a smartphone solution to COVID-19 tracking

The video below shows how individual smartphone users who were on a beach in Fort Lauderdale during spring break could be tracked. Each dot represents a user which can actually be tracked back to an address, which can then be used to identify them.

Quibi is a new mobile video streaming service for shorts

Quibi, for “quick bite”, is a new video streaming service ostensibly designed for modern life. Videos that appear on the service are less than 10 minutes long and you can only watch on a mobile device.

The service was not helped by launching just as COVID-19 changed how we live. While the company reported 1.7 million downloads in its first week, the free app is no longer trending on app stores. (Disney+ grabbed 10 million subscribers in its first day.)

It will have a more difficult time after the 90-day free trial ends, and people are expected to pay for a monthly subscription, which in Canada is $7 with ads, or $10 without.

A number of brands and broadcasters are participating by creating recaps and rundowns of their more traditional shows, and there are some halfway interesting experiments on Quibi, including:

  • Iron Sharpens Iron, where two professional athletes have to undergo the other’s training program.
  • Dummy, from Anna Kendrick, about a woman who makes a friend out of her boyfriend’s sex doll.
  • Memory Hole, featuring Will Arnett exploring pop culture history.
  • Elba vs Block, where actor Idris Elba and professional drier Ken Block channel their inner Top Gears.
  • Punk’d reboot, for better or worse.

But I doubt that any of these experiments are going to be enough to save Quibi.

Crave and other streaming services offer longer free trials

Until the end of April, Crave, which is newly available on Roku streaming devices and the Roku Channel (which aggregates content from other streaming services), has extended the free trial to 30 days.

Shudder, which curates horror and thriller films and TV, has done the same.

Ada and the Lost Horizon asks you to help tell a story

Not everything you and your kids do to pass the time these days has to be digital. Author Leila Sales is telling a story about a young woman named Ada, and anyone can help to create the adventure.

Sales started the story with the character and a premise: “Ada wakes to find herself alone. She was supposed to be here with her younger brother, Teddy. She was supposed to be watching out for him. But Teddy has disappeared in the night. Ada must find him, but her only clue is a ransom note.”

She sourced the content of the ransom note from her social media following. This is the note that she selected as the winner:

Sales used the contribution to further the story.

The instructions lay everything out, but basically Sales puts out a call for contributions every other day and anyone who wants to contribute to the story has a day to submit.

And the things that Sales is asking can be completed by any age and also, according to the rules, “a) alone, b) at home, and c) without use of a computer…. All of the Tasks will be open to interpretation and customization (e.g. ‘make a treasure map’ or ‘turn your bathroom into a beach resort’), so there’s no one ‘right’ answer.”

Get caught up on the story of Ada and the Lost Horizon.

Limited edition Xbox One X looks like it comes from the world of Cyberpunk 2077

Eagerly anticipated open world action video game Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t come out until September 17, but this week CD Projekt Red and Xbox showed off the limited edition console celebrating the game.

The 1 TB console ships with a code for the game, of course, as well as a slick new controller that you can purchase separately now for $85.

Pricing for the Cyberpunk Xbox One X has not been announced, but preorders go live in June.

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