The Two Blokes Talking Tech podcast – Episode # 733 – Telco Dramas and 6G – are we ready?

Two Blokes Talking Tech — Episode #733
Title: Telco Dramas and 6G – are we ready?
Date: 21 May 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long & Stephen Fenech

[00:00:00] Trevor: I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stephen. What are you talking about? What happens on tour? Do you remember when the private feed was the only, it was just stuff we didn’t talk about on air? And now we’ve got the private feed as a show. We’ve got this as a show and then there’s just absolute chaotic stuff that happens.

[00:00:18] Stephen: Yeah, it’s a shame we can’t record that. Our numbers would go through the roof.

[00:00:22] Trevor: Yeah, I mean, if I get a— We’ve got a terminal diagnosis. This podcast is gonna go wild. Yeah.

[00:00:29] Stephen: What?

[00:00:29] Trevor: I mean, if I’ve got nothing to lose.

[00:00:31] Stephen: Okay, right.

[00:00:32] Trevor: You know what I’m saying? If you said to me, Trev, you got 3 weeks to live, what are you gonna do? I’m gonna take the family to Disneyland, we’re gonna have a great time and then I just need one day.

[00:00:37] Stephen: Just unload.

[00:00:38] Trevor: I just need one day with Fennec.

[00:00:41] Stephen: To get it laid all, to lay it all down.

[00:00:43] Trevor: Yeah, I’ll just lay it all down and you’ll publish it. This was his last request.

[00:00:46] Stephen: Yeah, that was his last request. You’d be like, I didn’t say a thing. I got immunity, yeah.

[00:00:49] Trevor: No, you’d say, I didn’t say a thing. He said it all.

[00:00:52] Stephen: I got the immunity clause. Yeah, I file for immunity. Yeah. That’s it.

[00:00:58] Trevor: So just so you know, mate, if I’ve got 2 weeks left, I want to spend it basically a day with you.

[00:01:04] Stephen: That’s nice.

[00:01:04] Trevor: Just for the record.

[00:01:05] Stephen: That’s kind of nice, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:08] Trevor: But it’s— yeah, it is.

[00:01:12] Stephen: Yeah, we do know. We know where all the bodies are buried. You know, we know a bit. There’s a bit of insider. Speaking of which, The Insider coming up in a couple of weeks.

[00:01:21] Trevor: What a plug for a couple of weeks away.

[00:01:22] Stephen: Coming up in a couple of weeks for— on the 2— I was going to say 2 blokes talking movies, but it’s called The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen. This week, life of Brian.

[00:01:32] Trevor: Is it? Yeah. Well, you’re gonna have a real struggle with it. We might need to pin up a sheet because full disclosure, no, full disclosure, we are gonna pack them up. We’re gonna stack them and rack them over the next couple of months because we’ve got a bit of work to do.

[00:01:44] Stephen: Correct.

[00:01:45] Trevor: I’ve also made an executive decision.

[00:01:47] Stephen: Have you now?

[00:01:48] Trevor: That I haven’t consulted you.

[00:01:49] Stephen: Have you now? You haven’t just told me. Nah, that can’t be an executive decision if I don’t know.

[00:01:53] Trevor: After the Apple event when I’m traveling, Given that we’ve sorted out what we’re going to do with EV and movies, I think we could bring in a guest like—

[00:02:02] Stephen: Oh, when you’re doing your family stuff.

[00:02:05] Trevor: Because I said, I’ll just bring the gear and I’ll just do it. I’ll still do it once a week with you. Yeah, I don’t know.

[00:02:10] Stephen: You had to change your heart on that.

[00:02:11] Trevor: I don’t know how I’d keep up with what’s going on. Yeah, okay. So that’s my issue.

[00:02:14] Stephen: Yeah, that’s what? How many weeks you away? So you’ll miss what, 2, 3 shows?

[00:02:20] Trevor: No, 5-ish.

[00:02:21] Stephen: What?

[00:02:21] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:02:23] Stephen: Really?

[00:02:24] Trevor: Okay.

[00:02:24] Stephen: Anyone who’d like to apply for Trevor Long’s position on the show? I think that’s—

[00:02:28] Trevor: come on, there’s a clear understudy role.

[00:02:31] Stephen: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We’ve got a bench. We’ve got a deep bench. Yeah.

[00:02:34] Trevor: There’s one person on it.

[00:02:35] Stephen: Shallow bench. It’s a shallow bench. But yeah. So is that right? So you’re going to—

[00:02:39] Trevor: Yeah, I just thought about it. I thought, how am I going to do that? Like I can do— I can do— if we assume the Apple event is when it is. Yeah, I can do that on the show.

[00:02:49] Stephen: So you’re continuing after that? Yeah, truck.

[00:02:50] Trevor: I’d probably think about doing the week after as well because it could be reviews involved. But otherwise, otherwise, yeah, you know, like, yeah, you gotta have your break, mate. Let the bloke have a break, will ya?

[00:03:01] Stephen: Of course.

[00:03:01] Trevor: You know what I’m saying?

[00:03:02] Stephen: Of course.

[00:03:02] Trevor: So anyway, you—

[00:03:05] Stephen: So just leave the keys for me, mate. I’ll look after everything, eh?

[00:03:08] Trevor: You wanna do it here?

[00:03:09] Stephen: Oh, we’ll work something out.

[00:03:11] Trevor: I can’t imagine you and Val both coming here.

[00:03:13] Stephen: Nah, we’ll work it out. Yeah.

[00:03:15] Trevor: But there is always a key out the front for you, mate.

[00:03:17] Stephen: Audio only perhaps, or we’ll work out something.

[00:03:21] Trevor: I think audio only’s fine, mate. You’ll get away with it. Otherwise you can—

[00:03:25] Stephen: Yeah, well, at least of your worries anyway.

[00:03:28] Trevor: Frankly, yeah.

[00:03:29] Stephen: Not till September, but—

[00:03:30] Trevor: Yeah, it’s a way off. But wasn’t it interesting when you realize how time flies essentially?

[00:03:35] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:03:35] Trevor: When I went, okay, I better map this out. And it was like, actually we’ve gotta—

[00:03:39] Stephen: Yeah, we’ve gotta hustle.

[00:03:40] Trevor: We’ve gotta hustle. So I’m glad we did that.

[00:03:42] Stephen: Unless you wanna do like, remember on the EV show we did those couple of evergreen shows? Did you want to do a couple of evergreen tech shows?

[00:03:49] Trevor: You come up with a concept.

[00:03:51] Stephen: Now we talk about, you know, tips and tricks and stuff that, you know, that you can look back on that in a year and it’s still relevant, like, you know, security tips and all that sort of stuff. Just a thought.

[00:04:00] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:04:00] Stephen: What do you think about that?

[00:04:01] Trevor: I don’t know. What would they be?

[00:04:02] Stephen: Might be boost the numbers on YouTube too. I reckon we could come up with something maybe. And because it’s, you know, we can do it and make it pretty, uh, not like a presentation, pretty visual. You’re saying put some effort into it, like overlay and B-roll and and show stuff. And wow, just a thought, mate.

[00:04:22] Trevor: Well, you come up with a plan.

[00:04:23] Stephen: I like how we have our meetings for the show on air. We do it live. We talk about it on air.

[00:04:29] Trevor: You’re finding out with us, folks. We text stupid memes and silly TikToks and then we get together and go, we should probably talk about the show.

[00:04:38] Stephen: Trev says proof of life pictures of movies he’s watching. So proof of life, he should send me a screenshot of the movie he’s supposed to watch.

[00:04:44] Trevor: I was—

[00:04:44] Stephen: To make sure it’s the right movie.

[00:04:45] Trevor: A long way through the movie when I thought, oh, I better let Steven know that I’m doing this.

[00:04:48] Stephen: Otherwise you’ll be like, No worry if you don’t send me a photo. I’ll know. I’ll trust that you’re watching the movie.

[00:04:53] Trevor: I don’t think you should.

[00:04:55] Stephen: Yeah. Okay.

[00:04:55] Trevor: Honestly, if by Tuesday night.

[00:04:58] Stephen: Oh, okay.

[00:04:59] Trevor: You haven’t received, you haven’t seen a photo, you need to say, have you done the movie? There have been a couple of times where I’ll go, I’ll do it on Wednesday morning.

[00:05:06] Stephen: Yeah. Wednesday at 4 AM. I’ll get your photo at 4 AM. I’m not awake yet.

[00:05:09] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:05:10] Stephen: And then you probably finished the movie by the time I get up.

[00:05:12] Trevor: I’m telling you, proof of life is a critical part. I’m so, you know how people What the hell’s that noise?

[00:05:19] Stephen: I’m getting messages.

[00:05:20] Trevor: Is there any chance of you muting your water?

[00:05:22] Stephen: Could you hear that?

[00:05:24] Trevor: Yes. You know, isn’t it like it’s a common dream of like going to work or going to school as a kid, going to school naked or something like stupid, bad, embarrassing dream.

[00:05:32] Stephen: Like a dream, yeah.

[00:05:33] Trevor: My embarrassing dream is you hit go on the movie and I go, I have not watched this.

[00:05:37] Stephen: Haven’t watched it yet.

[00:05:39] Trevor: And I’m like, dude, can we do it while I watch it?

[00:05:41] Stephen: It’d be like that.

[00:05:42] Trevor: If it was an hour and a half movie, we could get away with it.

[00:05:44] Stephen: Do you remember, I think it’s the 20th anniversary. Remember the bloke that was on BBC? He was there for a job interview. Yeah. And they see somehow ended up on the set and they interviewed him about this thing. And you see his eyes sort of go up and him trying to go with it.

[00:05:59] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:06:00] Stephen: But that was the— that’d be you if you don’t watch the movie.

[00:06:03] Trevor: It’s like when 2SM Newsroom rang me, you know, 20 years ago and go, hi, just wanted to get some grabs from you. No worries at all. So grabs about what? So can you talk to me about this style of whale? Is this common? For this sort of wild little beach. And I’m like, wrong Trevor Long, mate. Like, if this is the newsroom, so I can tell you this, stop recording. Wrong Trevor Long. Okay.

[00:06:25] Stephen: Is he still the boss of SeaWorld?

[00:06:26] Trevor: Nah, he’s retired.

[00:06:28] Stephen: So your namesake is the boss of SeaWorld. I remember, I can remember him being interviewed on the Today Show. I think, what’s Trevor talking about?

[00:06:36] Trevor: We were on the same day. There was one time, one day, like it was back in the day.

[00:06:40] Stephen: Have you actually met him?

[00:06:41] Trevor: Nah, mate.

[00:06:41] Stephen: Imagine getting you both together.

[00:06:43] Trevor: I don’t think he’s— oh, this is really rude, but he’s so old he doesn’t care about all the usernames that I own. Okay, it’s not like he cares that I’ve got the Twitter.

[00:06:49] Stephen: So you bought him out of all the domain names and all that?

[00:06:51] Trevor: Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:52] Stephen: You got in ahead of me.

[00:06:52] Trevor: Good luck. The only one I don’t have is that asshole teen— he’s not a teenager, he’s like a 20-year-old in America.

[00:06:58] Stephen: Your Instagram, Trevor Long AU, eh?

[00:07:00] Trevor: That’s bad luck. I just need him to— if he puts up a post that says, you know, struggling to make the mortgage, GoFundMe here, I’ll be like, mate, I can help you with your mortgage.

[00:07:09] Stephen: Ah, really? You’d pay to get that?

[00:07:11] Trevor: 100%. Really?

[00:07:12] Stephen: Wow.

[00:07:12] Trevor: Yes.

[00:07:13] Stephen: I’ve got Steven Finnick, no problem.

[00:07:15] Trevor: I’ve messaged, I’ve DM’d him.

[00:07:17] Stephen: Yeah, I know.

[00:07:17] Trevor: I think we’ve discussed this.

[00:07:19] Stephen: We’ve discussed this on the show and you even went to, I remember when you also got the efgm.com as well. I can’t believe someone already had that.

[00:07:29] Trevor: It was 4 letters. People own every 4-letter combination. Really?

[00:07:32] Stephen: Are you sure?

[00:07:33] Trevor: Pretty much. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:36] Stephen: There’s a few four-letter words I’m pretty sure you can’t put in a domain name.

[00:07:39] Trevor: It’s probably possible. Yeah, I agree. Well, that’s enough jibber jabber. Do this.

[00:07:47] VOICE OVER: Welcome to Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:07:49] Trevor: Not a bad price.

[00:07:50] VOICE OVER: With Trevor Long from eftm.com. Really handy device. And Steven Fenech from techguide.com.au. Great to have your company.

[00:07:59] Trevor: Two Blokes Talking Tech. And this is episode 700. 733, folks.

[00:08:05] Stephen: 733.

[00:08:07] Trevor: Looking forward to another anniversary soon of 750, I guess, at some point in time.

[00:08:11] Stephen: Well, I’m coming up to 700 on Tech Guide. I did 694 earlier this week.

[00:08:16] Trevor: Very nice. Getting there, just chipping away. Yeah, we’re just chipping away. Thousands of episodes of podcasts between us.

[00:08:22] Stephen: Yeah, wow.

[00:08:22] Trevor: Doing our best. Thanks to the great people at Arlo and Netgear. Arlo for all your home security needs, Netgear for your Wi-Fi and home networking. We’ll tell you more about them shortly.

[00:08:31] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:08:32] Trevor: But you know what, let’s nerd out on telecommunications and mobile networks, Stephen.

[00:08:37] Stephen: What’s it, we nerd out all the time anyway.

[00:08:38] Trevor: Two things we need to nerd out about. Yeah, but see, I think there are classes of nerds.

[00:08:44] Stephen: Most definitely.

[00:08:44] Trevor: Do you know what I mean? Like we’re middle-class nerds.

[00:08:47] Stephen: Yep.

[00:08:48] Trevor: And that is not a wealthy—

[00:08:49] Stephen: Middle-class nerds, yeah.

[00:08:50] Trevor: That’s a class of nerdiness, which is we know our phones, we know how to fix stuff.

[00:08:53] Stephen: Consumer-grade nerd.

Telco Spectrum Drama — ACMA pricing blow-up and industry backlash

[00:08:55] Trevor: And then there’s security-level nerds, and then there’s spectrum telco-level nerds. So we’re gonna talk about two things today. We’re gonna talk about spectrum and 6G, but we’ll get to 6G later. So there’s a bit of a battle or drama going on in the industry right now with the spectrum allocation. So spectrum is the word that’s used for the airwaves that we all exist in, where mobile, where radio frequencies exist, and that’s what mobile telcos use to transmit our mobiles and our mobile signals. Obviously, spectrum also exists in television, so television is distributed over a spectrum. But what happens in the—

[00:09:28] Stephen: And it’s owned by the government, right?

[00:09:29] Trevor: That’s right. The airwaves are owned by the government and they essentially lease the spectrum.

[00:09:33] Stephen: Up to people, right?

[00:09:34] Trevor: And there’s certain different parts of spectrum that are, that are not— they’re free to use. So like when you’re using two-way radios, that spectrum’s free to use. But if you want to use the 850 MHz spectrum, which can be used for mobile telecommunications, you have to own a block of that. And it’s this certain amount of space within it, so different people can own it. Yeah, so, uh, one, one telco might own half of it and two others might own a quarter each.

[00:09:58] Stephen: Because I do remember back in the day when they were coming into 4G and even 3G, that there were certain— like Optus was using this frequency for their 3G and Telstra uses this one.

[00:10:08] Trevor: Which is also why buying a grey market phone is a dumb thing to do because you may buy a phone that uses a completely different set of frequencies that are not used in Australia by our telcos. Leaving that aside, the renewal for a large swathe, swath, what’s the word?

[00:10:24] Stephen: Swathe?

[00:10:25] Trevor: Swathe? Section. A large part of the spectrum is due soon and there’s normally an auction process. Yeah. But what I didn’t realize was that ACMA, the people that, you know, sell the spectrum on the government’s behalf, they get to set a price. Yeah, I’m like, is that how an auction works? But what it is, it’s them saying, we think it’s going to achieve this much. And so they’ve essentially said to the government, this is how much it’s going to get, and which is essentially saying to the telcos, you need to be in this ballpark. Yeah, and the telcos, not happy. Yeah, well, not happy at all. Both Optus and Telstra have come out publicly and said, guys, this is crazy money. We’re talking about $7. $3 billion that ACMA is slating against this. And ACMA says, “Oh, we went to a UK consultant about this. We went to all these people and asked the value of it.” Do you know who knows the value best?

[00:11:12] Stephen: The telcos. Telcos, yeah, that’s right.

[00:11:15] Trevor: Now that’s a stupid thing to say because you think, “Oh, how do you value a property? You go to the, you just, do you ask an independent valuer or do you ask the 3 people willing to buy it? They’re gonna lowball you.” No, there’s a certain expense to this that is manageable. And then there’s a certain level of expense that means, guys, this is not in our budget. We’re gonna have to pass this on to customers.

[00:11:34] Stephen: So the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association has come out pretty hard against it. And the bottom line is, and so what they said was that the cost was almost, what they estimated the cost last year was less than, was almost $1.3 billion less than what it actually was going to go for.

[00:11:57] Trevor: So everyone’s been working on it being $6 billion.

[00:11:59] Stephen: So it’s now 7-point-something? Yes. Yeah. And so the end result will mean, and there was the warning from the AMTA is that expect your mobile plan prices to go up.

[00:12:12] Trevor: Yes.

[00:12:12] Stephen: Call prices to go up. Everything’s gonna go up. Yeah. As if that hasn’t been happening anyway. But this is gonna put pressure on the telcos to increase their prices to help offset this unexpectedly unexpected price increase on the spectrum.

[00:12:31] Trevor: Yeah, and it’s— look, I struggle with this because of that concept of, well, you’ve got to pay whatever’s fair, but— and how does this work right? Because do you think Vodafone, Optus, and Telstra can all agree that they’re not going to bid that amount of money? Because there’s no way— if I’m, um, Stephen Roo or Iñaki Baroeta at Vodafone, yeah, I’m not trusting Telstra not to bid for it, right? They’re going to bid for the whole bloody lot. So that you can’t It is a game changer. Of course, you can’t trust that they’re not going to bid on it.

[00:13:00] Stephen: If you can pick one of the most competitive industries in the world, it’d be this space. Very competitive. Because you think about it, right? It’s like everyone’s got a TV, everyone’s got a phone as well. So this is really, really incredibly competitive. And we’ve seen reactions. You said Telstra released a statement.

[00:13:20] Trevor: I think that’s really hard to find.

[00:13:22] Stephen: Optus is out with a statement saying a very challenging outcome for Optus and indeed the whole industry. Given the scale of investment required to build, maintain, and evolve mobile networks in Australia, telco networks are critical national infrastructure and underpin our productivity, cyber, national security, emergency response, and disaster recovery. Fair point.

[00:13:42] Trevor: Who’s that from?

[00:13:43] Stephen: Optus. Optus.

[00:13:44] Trevor: So Telstra speaking to Sam Buckingham-Jones at the, uh, Fin Review. This is just quoting the article. Telstra has warned the federal government it has massively overstated the value of the multi-billion dollar spectrum licenses, issuing a thinly veiled threat that it would prepare a— mount legal challenge to avoid overpaying.

[00:14:01] Stephen: Well, isn’t that the theme of the last week? After the budget and after everything else, everything’s going up. They’re charging you more for stuff.

[00:14:08] Trevor: So, you know, the— I think, who’s the representative body? ACAN, right? Is that who it’s— that’s what they’re called, isn’t it? There’s a representative body for the telcos and they are also worried. I saw a quote from them about it.

[00:14:22] Stephen: Oh, the industry’s up in arms, mate.

[00:14:24] Trevor: Basically the whole industry is united in saying this is outrageous. Yeah. What solves it? Because they were outraged and they were saying this before it came out, but now it’s come out. What do you do?

[00:14:35] Stephen: So hang on. So have they made their bids now or they just told it’s going to be in this ballpark?

[00:14:39] Trevor: They were just— they’ve now just been told. So this is ACMA 15 hours ago at the time of recording saying ACMA has released its preferred pricing for expiring spectrum licences and they have said the total market value of these renewing licences is $7.32 billion. Licences are held by the three telcos, as we know. They say, ACMA, spectrum is a finite and valuable national resource. So is gas, but are we— anyway, um, let’s—

[00:15:07] Stephen: tax, tax, man.

[00:15:08] Trevor: Let’s leave that debate. Um, the price that ACMA has set follows a rigorous benchmarking process designed to reflect the market value of the spectrum. So they say they went to this company and that company, and their advice is— our advice is that spectrum pricing alone should not lead operators to increase pricing for consumers.

[00:15:27] Stephen: Yeah, good luck. Okay.

[00:15:30] Trevor: So the aggregate cost for this spectrum will be lower than what they currently incur. How? I don’t know.

[00:15:37] Stephen: How is that possible? Because, well, look, we do— do we know? Because the leases are expiring. Yeah, that’s why this is happening.

[00:15:43] Trevor: There was something mentioned here that says they have come up with a payment plan. Under the preferred approach, licensees that apply within the first 9 months of the relevant renewal application period would pay 2 months before the renewed license commences. Commences This approach supports the early applications, gives the industry time to facilitate capital management, and avoids incentives for delayed renewal applications. I saw— I can’t find it, I’m quickly looking for it, but I did see a mention or a quote from ACAN. I’m sure it’s ACAN is the name of the industry body, but they said that they welcomed the move to to have payment plans essentially, but that it wasn’t enough.

[00:16:30] Stephen: Wow. So what, so could it potentially be that the government winds it back a bit and says, okay, we overcharged you?

[00:16:37] Trevor: I don’t think so.

[00:16:38] Stephen: So that’s it, that’s just the cost of doing business now?

[00:16:41] Trevor: I think they’ve just lost this battle basically. Wow. That’s how it feels. Yeah.

[00:16:46] Stephen: And I look, I can’t see them absorbing this. Like they’ve got, responsibilities to shareholders and customers and shareholders, first of all.

[00:16:56] Trevor: The idea that it’s not going to affect prices is, I just find that—

[00:17:01] Stephen: It’s ludicrous.

[00:17:02] Trevor: Insane. How could it not?

[00:17:04] Stephen: And don’t forget, we’re already having, they’ve all put their prices up, is it CPI increases?

[00:17:12] Trevor: Yes.

[00:17:13] Stephen: And that happens every year.

[00:17:15] Trevor: So what I was looking for, sorry to Aiken, was Louise Hyland, the CEO of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, AMPTA. I saw her on LinkedIn. She said, and I’ll just read it, ACMA spectrum pricing is a blow for mobile investment, regional connectivity, and ultimately Australian consumers. At a time Australia needs stronger digital infrastructure and cost of living relief, the regulator has decided to raise the cost of spectrum $1.3 billion above what was originally flagged last April. The amount is not able to be absorbed by telcos and forces operators to choose between sacrificing infrastructure innovation and investments or raising the price of plans.

[00:17:55] Stephen: Yeah, there’s a balance.

[00:17:56] Trevor: We welcome ACMA’s more practical payment timing arrangements. The pricing framework itself remains deeply concerning.

[00:18:04] Stephen: So they’ve got to come back to them. So when’s the actual auction? Just later this year?

[00:18:07] Trevor: I think it’s staggered. So there’s a bunch of spectrum that’s expiring.

[00:18:10] Stephen: So they’ve got to— do they have any recourse? Can they come back and say, listen, can they argue?

[00:18:14] Trevor: The only recourse here is that the industry unites and doesn’t pay the expected amount. Because it’s not like Verizon is going to suddenly come to Australia, go, we’ll buy your spectrum and we’ll create a mobile network. Yeah, because you can’t just do that, you’ve got to build towers, right?

[00:18:27] Stephen: Yep.

[00:18:27] Trevor: So they’re stuck here, ACMA, in that they’ve only got 3 bidders. If the bidders were to corral together, which would be illegal I think anyway, but, but if they were to get together and say we’re not going to, then they’d be stuffed. But they’re not going to do that because what What the AMTA is saying here is that let’s say, I don’t know how the $7 billion gets split up, but let’s say it’s $4 billion to Telstra, $3 billion to Optus and $2 billion to Vodafone depending on the spectrum they buy. And let’s say it’s over 5 years or whatever it’s over, I don’t know. But let’s say it’s half a billion dollars a year and they currently only had a budget for $300 million a year. Yeah. Do they, do they increase that capital spending to put it against spectrum or do they— Oh yeah. So then they reduce the number of towers they build that year or up— The amount of research they do or or whatever else they want to do to build their network.

[00:19:20] Stephen: And then to generate more revenue, put the prices up.

[00:19:23] Trevor: What do you think they’re gonna do? They’re gonna go, “You know what? If we put prices up by $5 a month, we can cover that.” Or I think it’ll be something that— And you know what Telstra knows?

[00:19:31] Stephen: One won’t go out on their own. They’ll all do it together.

[00:19:35] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:19:35] Stephen: You know, it’s like—

[00:19:36] Trevor: But they can’t put the prices up now. They have to wait until— Of course. The impact of the—

[00:19:39] Stephen: You can expect your plan to be more expensive in the future.

[00:19:43] Trevor: And this is where I think we’ve all known governments are out of touch with reality, not breaking news, but this is where ACMA needs to hear from the general public. It’s like, guys, stop being greedy. We’ve got a strong industry.

[00:19:56] Stephen: Really strong compared to the rest of the world. Our networks are really good.

[00:20:00] Trevor: They’re highly regarded. They work really well. They’re fast, as you say, they’re reliable. Why would we compromise that?

[00:20:07] Stephen: Why jeopardize that? Yeah, that’s jeopardizing that. ‘Cause if they’re gonna spend less money on in maintenance and infrastructure, then you know what? Will this though, I’m just wondering, thinking out loud here, will this maybe speed up the move to sort of go satellite?

[00:20:24] Trevor: Well, that’s a different problem because the problem with going satellite is there’s no regulation that covers things like triple zero and universal mobile service obligation, stuff like that. So that’s where Louise Hyland and other industry operatives need to make those changes faster than they need to, to do this. But that would be another argument for the price of spectrum coming down, is that there’s more competition for spectrum.

[00:20:48] Stephen: Go satellite.

[00:20:49] Trevor: Yeah, because there’s new spectrum.

[00:20:51] Stephen: That’s right. And so that’s— and that being in outer space, that’s not owned by Australia, is it? By the government? Who owns that?

[00:20:57] Trevor: Elon.

[00:20:57] Stephen: So whoever puts the satellites up there, they own that spectrum.

[00:21:01] Trevor: Yes.

[00:21:01] Stephen: In it.

[00:21:02] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:21:02] Stephen: So like already now, like today, you can send a message on Telstra via satellite, right?

[00:21:07] Trevor: That’s right, yeah.

[00:21:08] Stephen: It’s still a few years away from talking texts.

[00:21:11] Trevor: And you know, my understanding is it’s not a technological constraint, the talking. They’re doing that in America. It’s not a technological, it’s a legislative constraint.

[00:21:20] Stephen: Really?

[00:21:21] Trevor: If Telstra enabled calling via satellite, which is broadly technically possible today, they would have customers in breach of triple zero regulations because they wouldn’t be able to call emergency services via satellite.

[00:21:34] Stephen: I understand. But don’t you think that this is sort of a, the club in the bag that they’ve got for this difficult shot here that they can say to the government, well, look, we’re gonna probably need less spectrum in the future rather than more spectrum because we got this other option.

[00:21:51] Trevor: But if you’re not in our world, right, nerds.

[00:21:53] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:21:54] Trevor: Are you looking at this going, good on the government for getting an extra billion bucks? Like they need money.

[00:21:59] Stephen: Yeah, but.

[00:21:59] Trevor: So from a government agency perspective, you gotta go, well, at least they’re trying to get more money for the government.

[00:22:04] Stephen: Yeah, but it’s gonna end up costing costing the taxpayer more anyway because if they put the prices up, it’s government benefits and we pay for it. And what we get back is, you can argue that all day long, what we get back through the government, what they’re gonna spend, what they’re gonna build with it, do with it.

[00:22:21] Trevor: How is it having Alibaba as a 47% investor in Tech Guide? You seen those memes?

[00:22:26] Stephen: I have, yeah, I have. They’re very funny.

[00:22:28] Trevor: I hadn’t seen them and then the Daily Telegraph rang me for a quote and I’m like, I just made it up on the spot.

[00:22:31] Stephen: I was on Sky News talking about it the other night.

[00:22:34] Trevor: It’s hilarious. What do you want to say?

[00:22:37] Stephen: Well, you know what, they respond— tech entrepreneurs and businesses respond with tech, with their own little memes and stuff.

Telstra & Ericsson — 6G partnership and what it might mean

[00:22:44] Trevor: Now, the challenging thing for the telcos about this spectrum debate— yeah, and I think it’s a challenging thing for Telstra— is in the same week that this happens, they announce that they’re partnering up with Ericsson, their network provider, to begin the process of understanding and testing and trialing, uh, what 6G might look like.

[00:23:00] Stephen: And that would require spectrum, infinite spectrum, whether what shape it takes and when, like the timeline. I don’t think we’re talking next year or the year after here. We’re talking the journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step and this is that first step. Telstra and Ericsson have been together working together for quite a long time. I remember Ericsson, I remember, do you remember when NextG came out? Remember NextG early 2000s, right? Saul Trujillo was the, was the was the boss of Telstra. And I remember interviewing him. I was working at The Telegraph at the time, and I can remember going to Mobile World Congress the February after 3G was launched.

[00:23:43] Trevor: Yes.

[00:23:43] Stephen: And this Ericsson— Telstra was Ericsson’s badge of honor, what they did. Look what we made. Yes. In Australia, it was— that was their their jewel in the crown.

[00:23:56] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:23:56] Stephen: And that can— that relationship continues to this day. Like, they helped them with 4G, 5G, and now onwards with 6G.

[00:24:03] Trevor: And I think we need to be cautious here. 6G is not coming anytime soon.

[00:24:06] Stephen: Yeah, it’s going to be 10 years away.

[00:24:08] Trevor: You need to realize that 6G doesn’t just happen. It has to be worked out. That’s what they’re doing is they’re going, okay, what, what will it be? So firstly, what spectrum might it use? But also, what can you do with it? So what does it cater for? So we know that what 5G allowed for was higher bandwidth and and more devices essentially was the broad thing. Yes, it was sold to us as being speed, but really it’s about having more resilience on the network because you’ve got so many, so many extra connections. And I’ll be honest with you, I think they’ll struggle with 6G. I think they’ll struggle to sell 6G to the consumers because I think 5G was underwhelming to people. Yeah, I think most people are underwhelmed by 5G.

[00:24:45] Stephen: The reaction I’ve had to this on radio has been, we’ve only just got 5G, what are you doing with 6G? I said, well, it’s not going to happen tomorrow. They’ve got to start somewhere. This is that starting somewhere. But you think about like the promise of all this stuff in the future, like, you know, autonomous driving and delivery bots and drones and that, that what is going to run that and drive that is a network like 6G. And you’ve got to remember, there’ll be an AI layer.

[00:25:09] Trevor: But they told us that about 5G. Well, and also an AI layer. What are we talking about? Yeah, well, that sounds like utter BS to me.

[00:25:16] Stephen: I think the big, like, the thing that I was sort of talking about was the fact that that it can be used. And again, here, this was promised with 5G as well, but it was used like a smart network. You know, like at home you got your Wi-Fi network, you got all your smart devices and they’re working together. So imagine that on a citywide or countrywide scale with 6G enabling that. So you could have, you know, trucks doing whatever they gotta do with farmers with their agricultural stuff.

[00:25:42] Trevor: Everything we heard with 5G.

[00:25:43] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:25:44] Trevor: Well, you know what I mean? Like, this is what they said about 5G.

[00:25:48] Stephen: I know there’s the promise.

[00:25:49] Trevor: Vehicle to vehicle, all this stuff.

[00:25:49] Stephen: Yeah, there’s the promise And then there’s the delivery, but can 5G do it is the question.

[00:25:57] Trevor: Does anyone need it?

[00:26:00] Stephen: Well, you know what? It’s like what Steve Jobs used to say, guys, we’re gonna work out what people are gonna want, what people are gonna need. And I think in the case of 6G, I think that probably falls within that circle there where you don’t know you need it until you see it.

[00:26:17] Trevor: Until someone comes up with it. Well, I’ll say this right now, if we could, If we could, with a flick of a button, take 1,000 people, 1,000 people in our audience, and like I do a blind trial. So all of you are going to experience a different network situation for the next 2 weeks. And then like a placebo, 500 of them don’t change. The other 500, we switch to 4G only, but we don’t tell them.

[00:26:40] Stephen: Yeah. Will they notice a difference?

[00:26:42] Trevor: No way they notice. Yeah. I’ve had people say to me, I’ve never seen 5G on my phone. And I go, I’ll turn it on for you. For you because it wasn’t turned on in the settings. Like, oh wow, honestly, mate, trust me, if you put your phone on 4G for a day, yeah, you won’t notice a bloody thing.

[00:26:55] Stephen: Yeah, maybe, but is it, is it because we haven’t really sort of pushed the envelope though?

[00:27:02] Trevor: Have we pushed the envelope?

[00:27:03] Stephen: Yes. Yeah, but like, is the developer— I think AI is going to push stuff forward.

[00:27:08] Trevor: Yeah, but AI is moving on to device, so you don’t need hyper, hyper connectivity. You know, 5G has been proven to be enough for cloud gaming, for example. So what do we need 6G for? Yeah, mate, I, I, here’s my, here’s my worry. We’re going to be at Mobile World Congress or Telstra headquarters in 2033. In 2033, yeah, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be 54 or something.

[00:27:32] Stephen: I’ll be retired.

[00:27:32] Trevor: 53.

[00:27:33] Stephen: I might still be around.

[00:27:34] Trevor: You’ll still turn up. Yeah, like Gary Barker used to just rock up.

[00:27:38] Stephen: Yeah, the old Mac man.

[00:27:40] Trevor: Yeah, you’ll turn up because you, because it’s Telstra, you’ll turn up to that one. Okay. And there’ll be all these young influencers.

[00:27:46] Stephen: Yeah. Who are just you and me, the old blokes.

[00:27:48] Trevor: And then me and you. And we’ll be like, what do we need it for?

[00:27:50] Stephen: What do we need this for? You told us this 10 years ago. And everyone will look around and go, what? Why would you ask?

[00:27:55] Trevor: You told us this 10 years ago. They won’t invite us because we’ll be heckling them.

[00:27:59] Stephen: We’ll be narcs. Yeah.

[00:28:00] Trevor: Who needs this?

[00:28:01] Stephen: Yeah. Well, you know, that’s why research is required. And Telstra has got a test facility on the Gold Coast and Ericsson has one over in Sweden.

[00:28:10] Trevor: I love the way they refer to that like it’s something— I mean, it’s cool, but it’s just a room.

[00:28:14] Stephen: I know. Well, something.

[00:28:16] Trevor: Yeah, I respect it. I’ve been there a couple of times.

[00:28:17] Stephen: But you know what? Isn’t it a case though where— and it’s like AI. I still feel like this with AI. There’s features that we haven’t discovered yet. There’s features and things we haven’t discovered yet. So I think having this other super duper AI-laced network, how’s that going to hurt us? Who knows, it might be the next big thing. And I keep going back to autonomous driving. You’re not going to have that where each company, each car company just individually does their own thing. There’s got to be some sort of common thread to it all, like a standard that requires that sort of connectivity where they can all talk to each other away from all the other traffic that we need for the networks. So Is that 6G? So we don’t know. Is it, is it some other solution to an existing problem?

[00:29:15] Trevor: I mean, I guess what you’re doing is, Telstra, right now is you’re going, what are people asking you for that we’re asking us for that we can’t deliver?

[00:29:21] Stephen: Yeah, I think it’s a sort of the, it’s the tech version of what if, what if we could do this? And they go, that’d be great, but how are we going to do that? And 6G could be the answer to that.

[00:29:31] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:29:31] Stephen: Okay.

[00:29:32] Trevor: Well, I can’t say low latency. They can’t say high speed.

[00:29:35] Stephen: Well, speeds will get better, but you know, how fast do you want— do you need?

[00:29:38] Trevor: As I say, no one gives a rat’s— I don’t think it’ll make any difference.

[00:29:42] Stephen: Nice letters though, 6G.

[00:29:43] Trevor: I think most people don’t realize what speed they’re getting at home. Yeah. Unless you’re— well, that’s the other middle or upper class.

[00:29:49] Stephen: 6G potentially outpace the NBN.

[00:29:54] Trevor: Well, but it’s mobile, so it’s always going to have the constraints of congestion.

[00:29:57] Stephen: Well, that’s 5G though. 6G might get around that. No, that’s the secret source of 6G.

[00:30:03] Trevor: You’re on the payroll for Ericsson.

[00:30:04] Stephen: I’m not, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here thinking, well, you know, good on them for making—

[00:30:10] Trevor: for Devil’s Advocate, another movie you can watch on the best movies you’ve ever seen.

[00:30:13] Stephen: Yeah, great show. Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves.

[00:30:15] Trevor: Yeah, you remember that? I remembered when you said it.

[00:30:17] Stephen: There you go.

[00:30:18] Trevor: Yeah, um, strange ending to that one too.

[00:30:21] Stephen: No spoilers.

[00:30:22] Trevor: That’s some wild stuff goes on at the end of the movie.

[00:30:24] Stephen: I really like that I love that movie. One of my favorite quotes in it too.

[00:30:27] Trevor: Which one’s that?

[00:30:27] Stephen: Which I cannot say here. Yeah, you have to watch the show.

[00:30:30] Trevor: I hope this bloke leaves.

[00:30:31] Stephen: One of my favorite.

[00:30:32] Trevor: Tell him to leave it.

[00:30:33] Stephen: Yeah, one of my favorite movie quotes, but I can’t say it because it’s got the F word in it. Oh. Yeah.

[00:30:39] Trevor: It’s not the Glengarry Glen Ross one? No, it’s the, no.

[00:30:43] Stephen: I think they go into Al Pacino’s character’s residence and they’re thinking, where there’s no other rooms. He goes, where does he sleep? And the other question is, where does he fuck?

[00:30:58] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:30:59] Stephen: And then the response from him in the background is everywhere.

[00:31:03] Trevor: Wow. There it is, folks.

[00:31:04] Stephen: But go watch the show if you don’t believe me.

[00:31:06] Trevor: Yeah, look it up on The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, which is also in this feed if you’re listening to 2 Blokes Streaming Tech. If you’re watching on YouTube, a whole other podcast called The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and you can check it out in your favorite podcast.

[00:31:16] Stephen: It’s audio only though, audio only.

[00:31:18] Trevor: That’s right. Check it out in your favorite podcast app. Tab, which is what I was gonna say.

[00:31:21] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech. Two Blokes Talking Tech, proudly supported by Arlo. Great supporters of the Two Blokes Show. Please support them. They’ve been supporting us so brilliantly for so long. Now, Arlo’s all about security, but it’s also about peace of mind. You wanna be able to monitor your property from anywhere, whether that’s with a doorbell, whether that’s with a camera, a floodlight, they have you covered. Their range of products are very easy to install using your own or existing wireless network, and then you’re able to monitor your— what’s happening around your home. You get notifications. They also have amazing, uh, smart premium plans to allow you to store not only your video footage in the cloud for up to 30 days, but also smart notifications. So you can tell if there’s a person, a package, a vehicle, an animal on your property. You can have all other kinds of safety notifications as well. So well worth tying all those products together if you don’t already have them with a plan also. And if you do have some cameras, you can easily add on to that setup. And Arlo even have an interesting bundle and save section. So if you are starting from scratch and you want to buy all your products from, from Arlo, you’re able to bundle. And if you spent— you have a certain amount that you spend, you get a 10 15 or 20% discount. Well worth checking them out. Look directly at arlo.com. This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

Sony WH-1000X Collection — $999 luxury headphones reviewed

[00:32:54] Trevor: All right, ladies and gentlemen, we talked headphones last week. We talked about the JBL Live series. Well, this week we’ve got another whole set, and here they are. Here we go. I’m going to start in the middle, Steven. It’s easier just to show in the middle. Geez, you make life complicated for me, mate. There’s not enough room. Just let me do my job.

[00:33:10] Stephen: Watch this.

[00:33:11] Trevor: Crying out loud.

[00:33:12] Stephen: No, not enough room, you reckon?

[00:33:13] Trevor: You don’t understand how social media works, you gibbering fool. Here they are, ladies and gentlemen. There’s a new pair of Sonys. They look a little bit like the, uh, the Mark VIIs, the WH-1000 Mark VIIs.

[00:33:25] Stephen: Mate, it looks like the sandwich press I bought at Kmart.

[00:33:27] Trevor: That’s true, that is very true. But if you could move yours so that I could open mine— it’s a set of over-ear headphones. You got black, nothing unusual there, right? Can’t you tell from the case?

[00:33:36] Stephen: I know, but I’m just saying—

[00:33:37] Trevor: now show the white one sitting next to it though. Take it out of the case. Case is awesome because it’s a really good sturdy carry case. Now for people listening, we’re just showing headphones, not really any rocket science. Now they look cool like that, but these are— this is an interesting decision by Sony. So it was a 2016, 2016, 1000X. I went, I went to Berlin. I think that was my first IFA as a guest of Sony for the launch of the— they call them MDR-1000Xs, I think, at the time, but they evolved into being the WH-1000 series, both legendary and over headphones. And mate, those first ones at that event, they were just all about we’re better than Bose. They didn’t say it, but they, they made that point.

[00:34:18] Stephen: Bose at that time and still today, excellent. But Bose were running the show back then.

[00:34:22] Trevor: So Bose are still excellent. But at the time, yeah, they were the only headphones you saw in business class on a plane. Now you see them all. Yeah. Sony has genuinely cracked this market. So these are not— they make it very clear these are not a follow-up product to the Mark VIIs. They are not a replacement for the Mark VIIs. They are a brand new range and they’re called the Collection. The Collection with an X. With an X in the middle.

[00:34:45] Stephen: By the way, 1000X, The Collection.

[00:34:48] Trevor: 10 years of the WH-1000 series.

[00:34:51] Stephen: You got to— these are like, in terms of the drivers, the diaphragm and all the, all the audio features have had an upgrade because let’s— have we broken the news on the price, by the way? Oh, these are $999.95. These are more expensive than the AirPods Max. Yeah. So, you know, Apple’s been selling headphones at that price for some time. And yes, they are designed for focused and beautiful. But Sony’s sort of gone for the touch of luxury as well with sort of the, the faux leather and the soft padding.

[00:35:24] Trevor: So the, the, the ear cup, uh, the originals were leather, these are a faux leather. Yeah, but very well engineered. So the mic holes are cut into it.

[00:35:32] Stephen: Took Sony 2 years to perfect that.

[00:35:34] Trevor: I mean, look at the, look at the 3.5mm jack there. That is beautiful, really well engineered to work within there. And then there’s this beautiful brushed and polished metal, hand polished, on the, on the headband. And I’ve got to tell you, they, they said in the— now, in when they, when they showed them to the first time. They said, uh, you know, we’ve, we’ve made the, made the headband bigger and they don’t feel heavy.

[00:35:54] Stephen: The weight, they’re really good.

[00:35:56] Trevor: Yeah, they are light as heck, aren’t they? They are.

[00:35:58] Stephen: I’m going to put them on right now.

[00:36:00] Trevor: I, I wore these, I wore these all, um, all morning on Tuesday. I did all my radio spots with these. Oh, so that all quality, pretty cool, so that I could listen back to them. Yeah, it’s funny, the first one I was doing, I didn’t know, great. But then I went, it could be the radio station’s phone line as well, so I listened to another one and they were excellent. So they are excellent call quality.

[00:36:19] Stephen: Yes. Well, audio quality stunning. And you know what the word that came to mind, I don’t know whether how you describe it, the word that came to mind was big, spacious. It’s like you’re in a concert hall.

[00:36:32] Trevor: Well, that’s— I felt that when you turn the 360 mode on.

[00:36:35] Stephen: Well, you know what, 360 mode for me, and I don’t know whether it was the song, it was just— it just added noise. Like I wrote in my review, that needs work and I’m going to keep experimenting with it, but you can only use 360 upmix with on the music mode. You can’t use it on the standard mode.

[00:36:51] Trevor: Dedicated button, by the way.

[00:36:52] Stephen: It’s on the—

[00:36:53] Trevor: I think it’s on the top on the left-hand side.

[00:36:55] Stephen: Left one. And I found I was listening to a few songs and all I found was that there was just more noise in the song rather than the sort of 360 separation.

[00:37:05] Trevor: Well, you know, they, they talked about music, cinema, and gaming. Is it the three modes or something like that? Um, and look, ‘Look,’ they said, ‘it’s like, you know, being in a concert hall.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t want to be in a concert hall. I want to be in the room with the artist.’ That’s what I mean. Like, I don’t— I want to be in the room with them. I’m confused by the labeling of it because when I often think of 360, I think of spatial audio, which allows you to have this sense—

[00:37:27] Stephen: Is that what they’re going for?

[00:37:28] Trevor: Well, I think spatial audio is designed to be a directional thing. So you hear it as if it’s coming from behind you, beside you, and in front of you, right?

[00:37:37] Stephen: I think what they’re thinking is instead of left, right, like normal stereo, it’s everywhere. And to me, that sounded— it sounded a bit overwhelming. I’m thinking there’s too much going on, and I turned it off.

[00:37:49] Trevor: I might— I turned it on once and then turned it off again.

[00:37:51] Stephen: I don’t know whether it’s because, you know, these— we had these pre-release. I don’t know whether it needs a firmware update. The app updated for it to work better. I’m going to try that. But first, first go wasn’t— wasn’t the best. I turned it off. Yeah, but standard music, the music and standard, standard was good, music gave it a bit more, a bit more warmth and depth. Uh, yeah, just brilliant. And look, I’d put them like, the XM6s are phenomenal, these are better but not by much. No, like, I wouldn’t— they’re not, they’re not— if you were just paying just for audio quality, you get the XM6s. The, the XM6s, if that’s all you want, that’s, that’s all you need. This adds the luxury, it’s got the same active noise cancellation same setup as the XM6s, so you’re not getting better noise cancellation.

[00:38:39] Trevor: They did essentially say, yeah, look, it’s about luxury. These are priced for people who have got money to burn because they love fashion, style, luxury. Someone who’s shopping for a Ferrari.

[00:38:49] Stephen: I don’t know whether you read my review. I’m pretty sure you didn’t, but I’ll describe it like this, right? It’s like, it’s like, you know, you’re involved here. Why do you buy your nice watches, right? Why do, why does my wife like Louis Vuitton bags? Yeah, because they look— they want to use them, right? They want to use their stuff, but they want to be seen to be using their stuff as well. You know what I mean? Imagine walking down the street with this, you’re thinking, “How good’s this? Everyone’s gonna be looking at me, look at these expensive headphones.” You’re gonna use them, of course, but it’s like a designer bag or an expensive watch. It’s that sort of customer who’s gonna buy this.

[00:39:26] Trevor: Yeah, look, I think these are amazing, but it’s $1,000, a lot of money.

[00:39:31] Stephen: Not for everyone.

[00:39:32] Trevor: And, and, you know, I’m gonna— I’ll take them on a plane and I’ll test them for noise cancelling. I’m sure they’re amazing. But yeah, I still—

[00:39:38] Stephen: and comfortable too, I’ve got to say, very comfortable.

[00:39:41] Trevor: I still say the WH-1000 Mark IVs, yeah, the best value headphones on the market still today. They’re still available.

[00:39:48] Stephen: Yeah, well, that was the breakthrough one. That was the breakthrough where it was sort of audiophiles that knew about them and were buying them. They were a bit sexy.

[00:39:58] Trevor: Also, they preferred— they The design changed after that and it went backwards. The design of those—

[00:40:02] Stephen: The 3 and the 4 almost looked identical.

[00:40:04] Trevor: Yes, but the 5 went to this kind of this style. This band.

[00:40:08] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:40:08] Trevor: And you couldn’t— there’s something—

[00:40:09] Stephen: you couldn’t lay them flat.

[00:40:10] Trevor: You can’t. So the reason I like the 4s and previous is you can fold them in.

[00:40:17] Stephen: Yeah. These don’t do that either.

[00:40:18] Trevor: You can’t fold these in. This is as small as they get.

[00:40:20] Stephen: True that. Yeah. But I love it. These are great.

[00:40:24] Trevor: I would still recommend the XM4s to most people.

[00:40:26] Stephen: This is my version of the TAG watch. Okay, but Trevor’s got not only these but also the Tag watch. That’s how good he’s going.

[00:40:35] Trevor: Listen, hey, don’t talk about your Phantom collection.

[00:40:39] Stephen: Go, go for your life, mate. Maybe private fee. We’ll talk about that on a private fee, mate.

[00:40:43] Trevor: Anyway, so Carl did comment on my watch this morning.

[00:40:45] Stephen: So he really stands out on your Blessington one. Yeah, is it your Bless the Woodlands?

[00:40:48] Trevor: This is my Eastern Brown Blessington.

[00:40:50] Stephen: Oh nice, Eastern Brown are named after snakes.

[00:40:52] Trevor: Yeah, see there’s a little snake on the top. Hang on, stand by.

[00:40:54] Stephen: You should introduce me to the company, mate. I might buy a couple of them.

[00:40:57] Trevor: You might. Well, they’re on the website, mate. Blessington I’ll find it for YouTube viewers. There it is.

[00:41:02] Stephen: Oh, there you go. Mate, I remember looking at that. I remember saw an ad for it online.

[00:41:07] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:41:08] Stephen: On social media and everything is now watches for me. The algorithm just went like a magnet.

[00:41:14] Trevor: Well, and you know what? I think it’s bad sometimes. So here’s what happened to me on the weekend.

[00:41:19] Stephen: What happened to you on the weekend?

[00:41:20] Trevor: Sitting back.

[00:41:20] Stephen: Is this a private chat?

[00:41:21] Trevor: No, no, it just means we should probably bring it up there. But anyway, so you know, they get a lot of desk organizer style Well, I get a lot of ads for desk organizers.

[00:41:30] Stephen: Why does that mean? They know you’re untidy or—

[00:41:31] Trevor: Yeah, probably. Anyway, so I saw this one and it had this, just the way it worked looked great, and I went buy. Now, oh, in really simple terms, any impulse buyer over here, what you buy is just a basic thing and you add bits onto it like a MagSafe attachment, a headphone attachment. I clicked, mate, I spent $1,500. Excuse me, more than a desk. Okay, and now, and all I get is bloody ads for the same thing from other companies. I’m like, I’ve already bought one.

[00:41:56] Stephen: That’s what happens, mate. Have you got it yet?

[00:41:58] Trevor: No.

[00:41:59] Stephen: Where is it?

[00:41:59] Trevor: Hasn’t arrived yet.

[00:42:00] Stephen: Mate, I hope you review it.

[00:42:01] Trevor: It’s going to be a glow up.

[00:42:02] Stephen: I hope you review it to get your money back.

[00:42:03] Trevor: I have to to get my money back.

[00:42:04] Stephen: Get a tax break, mate.

[00:42:05] Trevor: Yeah, well, EFTM bought it, I didn’t buy it.

[00:42:07] Stephen: I’m going to review a Lamborghini soon.

[00:42:10] Trevor: Yeah, because Tech Guys is renowned for its car content.

[00:42:13] Stephen: Well, hey, it’s technology, mate.

[00:42:14] Trevor: Is it?

[00:42:15] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:42:15] Trevor: A Lamborghini?

[00:42:16] Stephen: Yeah, well, the new Mercedes-Benz CLA electric is going to be a a real big review on there, mate. I’m gonna— I’m waiting for my test drive, mate.

[00:42:26] Trevor: I don’t doubt that you’ll indulge when the time comes near.

[00:42:30] Stephen: So look, bottom line, we’re still talking about Sony headphones.

[00:42:32] Trevor: Bottom line, $1,000 is a lot of money, and I don’t think you need to spend that much money.

[00:42:36] Stephen: Here’s what I said in my review, and go read it, it’s very well written. Give myself a wrap. The— if the— all the customer who looks at price last these are yours. If you want style, audio quality, all that luxury, then sure.

[00:42:52] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:42:53] Stephen: If you look at the price tag first, which most people do, there might be other options for you. Yeah.

[00:42:59] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:43:00] Stephen: But still, no denying how beautiful they are.

[00:43:03] Trevor: They’re unbelievable.

[00:43:04] Stephen: Very nice.

[00:43:04] Trevor: They are class-leading headphones without any question.

[00:43:07] Stephen: I’ll tell you a little story. After, well, we were at HP in W Darling Harbour, and after, after that, I thought, I want to, I need to take photos of me wearing the headphones. And so I was out the front of the W and a couple of people stopped them and they were sort of looking at the headphones thinking, what are they? They’d never seen them before. And they didn’t stop and talk to me, but I’m just there sort of trying to take casual selfies with wearing the headphones. Pictures on Tech Guide if you want to check it out. But yeah, people were thinking, oh, what is that? But they didn’t—

[00:43:35] Trevor: You left the W and took photos yourself for review. I left the W and claimed a payphone in Payphone Tag. I’m just, we’re built different.

[00:43:41] Stephen: There you go. Yeah, you played a what?

[00:43:44] Trevor: Payphone. Payphone Tag. It’s a great game taking the nation by storm. Thanks for reading Payphone Tag. Okay, or listening to the EFTM podcast.

[00:43:52] Stephen: Sorry, mate, I was busy that day. I was busy that month. Yeah, we did—

[00:43:56] Trevor: I did do it on 2 episodes.

[00:43:58] Stephen: Yeah, I told you I was busy that month.

[00:44:00] Trevor: Yeah, that’s fair.

[00:44:01] Stephen: Yeah, how many Tech God have you— podcasts have you heard from start to finish? Is that right? Zero. Zero, mate. You, you’re barely listening to me now on the podcast I’m with you. Right, okay, so I don’t think you can listen to one with me by myself.

[00:44:17] Trevor: Okay, so I’ll pay that. Oh, you’re barely listening to me now. That’s very funny. It’s not bad for you.

[00:44:23] Stephen: There you go, mate.

[00:44:24] Trevor: Not bad.

[00:44:24] Stephen: Here to entertain, that’s what I’m here for.

[00:44:27] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech, and we do it thanks to the great people at Netgear. And if you’re paying for unbelievably awesome internet with whatever internet provider you’re with, make sure you’re getting unbelievably awesome Wi-Fi at home as well. There’s no point having a big pipe fast internet coming to your home if it’s constricted and constrained by the network within your home, be that the cables or the Wi-Fi. Netgear can solve that problem. netgear.com.au for all the latest Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi 7 is the latest technology. The Orbi range is going to give you mesh throughout your home, so you have multiple devices, a router, multiple satellites, and you’ve got Wi-Fi everywhere. I was having a look with the caller on the EFTM podcast this week, and it reminded me there’s, there’s something for everyone in every budget. And the difference might simply be dual band versus tri-band, which simply means, frankly, if you’ve got a lot more devices and doing a lot more things, you really want to push towards the tri-band. But the dual-band might be all you need, and you might find that to be a much more appetizing price for you as well. So there’s something for everyone. The range is exceptional of mesh Wi-Fi systems from Netgear. They’re called the Orbi. There’s also the Nighthawk range, depending on who you are and what you want to do with your network. But just check them all out. They’re easy. They’re on the website netgear.com.au.

[00:45:35] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

Samsung & Hisense — Micro RGB vs Mini LED TV showdown

[00:45:39] Trevor: All right, Steven, we, uh, we’ve talked a little bit about RGB over the last 6 months because we saw it before CES, we saw it at CES, yep. Um, we’ve had TVs announced, we’ve talked about them, but there’s a couple of things we want to specifically call out today, and we’ll get to our both of our views on the Hisense. We’ve seen, we’ve reviewed our first TV properly, uh, in our own environment, which is unique and important because sometimes we just get a hotel room stay, right?

[00:46:04] Stephen: So same for everyone. Yeah, you’re right.

[00:46:06] Trevor: Correct. So this is in our environment doing our thing. But before that, we also went to Samsung’s headquarters last week and got to meet with some of their PQ people.

[00:46:15] Stephen: Yeah, their PQ, quality engineers. IQ, EQ, PQ.

[00:46:19] Trevor: That’s it. It’s an old joke. You need to— oh, we’ve mentioned it, but it’s many years ago.

[00:46:24] Stephen: Yeah, I did mention that was on a Samsung trip. We were at Samsung pre-CES, and I did express to our friends at Samsung that I’d be open to doing that again.

[00:46:34] Trevor: Of course.

[00:46:34] Stephen: I found it very— yeah, I got a lot out of that, talking to those engineers at the time. Yeah, that was excellent.

[00:46:41] Trevor: I think their plan is to just bring the engineers here. Maybe, maybe. Just easier for them. But anyway, moving on from that, what they did was they put on a display of 4 different kind of areas. And look, they were gaming monitors. Good, great, excellent, well done. I will get to those another time when they come out. They were OLED this year versus last year. Good, great, excellent improvement. Lovely. There was a micro RGB versus mini OLED.

[00:47:05] Stephen: I was trying to work out who the opposing are.

[00:47:08] Trevor: I think it’s their It’s a Korean company, but it’s not a model that’s available in Australia. Ah, that’s the problem.

[00:47:16] Stephen: That’s why, yeah, frankly, and the sticker that was covering the name was very small. So don’t think there’s many letters in the company’s name.

[00:47:23] Trevor: So they had a competitor product which was mini LED RGB versus their micro RGB. My problem is because it wasn’t a— what was it— wasn’t a known product. Yeah, it’s very hard to say that’s a genuine comparison to the Australian market, right?

[00:47:36] Stephen: Not a genuine competitor.

[00:47:37] Trevor: So I’m even going to ignore that. But what they did do, yeah, was put a top-of-the-line micro RGB backlit TV alongside an absolutely flagship product from last year, their Neo QLED Mini LED TV. Yeah, so the difference— flagship—

[00:47:51] Stephen: so the best TV they had last year.

[00:47:53] Trevor: For people that don’t, just need a quick reminder, so the Neo QLED Mini LED has blue backlights, so little tiny LEDs that are either white or blue that shine through the liquid crystal display and give you a picture. And the RGB has tiny little red, green, and blue LEDs, micro, the size of a thin of a grain of green and blue strand of hair.

[00:48:12] Stephen: Yep.

[00:48:12] Trevor: RGB behind that to light up the picture so that you can see it. And mate, the difference was phenomenal.

[00:48:19] Stephen: Yeah, it was amazing. The— and you know, it’s a shame the photos don’t do it justice. We took some good side-by-side shots with our phones, but seeing it with your eyes, that was incredible difference.

[00:48:33] Trevor: Did you think— so the demos that they had running on it was this like Egyptian monuments with red cotton being twirled around it. Did you think it was oversaturated when you first saw it?

[00:48:45] Stephen: A little bit.

[00:48:45] Trevor: Yeah.

[00:48:45] Stephen: First of all, because you get better brightness too with the RGB.

[00:48:48] Trevor: Yes.

[00:48:49] Stephen: So without the— you mentioned the single backlight color that requires the quantum dot filter to be on top of that. So that would sort of kill a bit of the brightness. But without that, the brightness is, oh, unleashed.

[00:49:01] Trevor: And so what I said was, look, I’ll be honest with you, after I stared at it for enough time, I didn’t feel like it was overwhelmingly oversaturated. No, no, it just took time for my eyes to adjust to the fact that it was a genuinely rich set of colors. And there is a challenge to discern between the impressive brightness and the impressive color.

[00:49:22] Stephen: So you can see, that’s one thing with TVs. I know in the past a lot of TVs, a lot of brands have pumped up brightness to try to sort of get around any sort of imperfections with the picture quality. So brighter for a lot of people equaled better.

[00:49:35] Trevor: Better.

[00:49:36] Stephen: Not always the case.

[00:49:37] Trevor: No.

[00:49:37] Stephen: So with, with this one, there was brightness, but every little nook and cranny inside that area was still really clearly visible and discernible, which is, you know, that’s high dynamic range. It’s, it’s, it’s what, it’s what good picture quality is all about. And they were able to do that. Like, normally you see brightness and you think, whoa, it’s just a big blob of color and there’s nothing else.

[00:49:58] Trevor: I can imagine turning the brightness down by 10 points. Yeah, you’re still being impressed by it. Because what I—

[00:50:03] Stephen: yeah, it doesn’t have a sensor, it can automatically do that. It has a sensor.

[00:50:07] Trevor: It probably does, but I’m saying by default it’s too bright. Yeah, but my point is that in the reds, so if you imagine a red bit of cotton or knit, think of it like wool because it’s thicker, and you look at that wool and you go, there’s so much red in there, like it’s not one color because it’s the depth of the fabric, right? So there’s shades and whatnot. But what you see, if there’s 10 steps of red in the Mini available to be seen, then what the micro RGB is showing is 7 of those steps. They’re showing— and they’re probably these ones and these ones. Like, it’s, it’s showing as many of them as it can, whereas the mini LED version, yeah, is showing like 4 of them. Yeah, do you know what I mean?

[00:50:45] Stephen: It’s like—

[00:50:46] Trevor: and so you’re jumping from the brightest to the third brightest to the sixth brightest, as opposed to jumping one increment at a time.

[00:50:53] Stephen: It’s hard to describe, you know, when they describe in, uh, with cameras but also with TVs, the different stops of, uh, of a color.

[00:51:01] Trevor: Yeah. Oh, right.

[00:51:01] Stephen: Yeah, you know, like there’s like, you know, how they said, you know, this there’s 10,000 scales of gray, you know, they have. So what you’re saying is that the RGB, the micro RGB was able to display those different, different, those differences a lot better than the mini LED could.

[00:51:17] Trevor: And I believe it was genuinely noticeable.

[00:51:19] Stephen: Oh yeah, absolutely noticeable. And I don’t know whether— would, would that be like— that’s a dramatic demonstration of the technology, but would you want to do that in a store? Would you want to like like put down your older TV to promote the new one? Because don’t forget, Samsung’s still going to have Neo QLED TVs in their range.

[00:51:39] Trevor: Yeah, so I think a lot of people though would stand in front of the Neo QLED and go, looks amazing.

[00:51:44] Stephen: Yeah, well, of course, you know what, you stand in front of a TV just on its own and you think, that’s incredible.

[00:51:50] Trevor: Yeah, there’s no—

[00:51:50] Stephen: how many, how many people are gonna have 2 TVs on their wall at home?

[00:51:53] Trevor: If there’s— so I did the account because I did that thing on the website, between Hisense, LG, Samsung, and TCL, there’s 136 new TVs. Yeah, there’ll be more when Sony come out, plus you get adding the cheap ones. But there’s not a bad TV in there. No, there’s not a bad TV. It’s just a TV for different uses and different people. So whether it’s size, brightness, budget, or technology-based, different people have different preferences.

[00:52:16] Stephen: Absolutely. And that’s not to say, like, their Neo QLEDs are still a phenomenal television that on their own— on their own, in fact I did. I didn’t want to say this in the room, but some colors look better on the Neo QLED. I’ll tell you the color— green.

[00:52:33] Trevor: Right.

[00:52:33] Stephen: Did you notice when they had the chart, green was the hardest one to achieve? Green on the Neo QLED, I would argue, is as good as micro RGB, if not better.

[00:52:41] Trevor: Right.

[00:52:42] Stephen: So red and blue, they nail it. And the combo, all those combinations. But pure green, the Neo QLED, for some reason, I think, was on par with the micro RGB. RGB.

[00:52:52] Trevor: Do you think that’s why— is it Hisense that have a yellow in the laser, or is it a white? Or white?

[00:53:00] Stephen: Is it a white? Yeah, but the RGB doesn’t, it’s just got green and blue. Are you like—

[00:53:05] Trevor: yeah, but the— I’m just saying, is that there— is that the reason they’re doing that because of the green?

[00:53:09] Stephen: Perhaps, yeah. But, uh, like they— you saw the chart, you know how the color gamut has the triangle, so there’s red blue and greens up here and it was just shy of the green, the green part. And they admitted, they said, oh no, green is the hardest to achieve. It is the hardest, but look great. But the Neo QoD, not bad. The green about the same. But reds, reds, the Micro RGB smashed it. Blue smashed it.

[00:53:37] Trevor: My challenge between Micro and Mini now, and this leads into our conversation about Hisense, is there’s absolutely no conversation about the number of backlights.

[00:53:46] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:53:46] Trevor: Now, with the greatest respect to the good people at Sony, I’m going to bag you a little bit here. But when we were at their briefing the other day, there was 2 TVs on the wall. You could count the backlights.

[00:53:54] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:53:54] Trevor: Did you see them? Pretty old.

[00:53:55] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:53:55] Trevor: You see them shining through?

[00:53:57] Stephen: Yes.

[00:53:57] Trevor: The literal LEDs were shining through.

[00:53:59] Stephen: It was like, yeah, there was probably—

[00:54:01] Trevor: there was 15 vertical, 25 across.

[00:54:03] Stephen: You counted them?

[00:54:04] Trevor: Yeah. So 15 by 25, that’s the number of dimming zones on that TV.

[00:54:08] Stephen: Okay. Yeah, you’re right.

[00:54:09] Trevor: Now, we don’t know, but I think they said it’s like 20,000 thousand plus, like it’s in the tens of thousands, right? But the difference between mini and micro is definitely in the size of the, of the, of what’s shining through each red, green, and blue. But if there’s the same number of them, I’m not sure whether it makes a difference.

[00:54:29] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:54:30] Trevor: Do you know what I mean? Like if Samsung puts 10,000 reds across the TV and Hisense does 10,000 as well, just because they’re bigger doesn’t mean, yeah.

[00:54:40] Stephen: Yeah, it’s not the size, it’s what you do with them that counts, mate. And with the Samsung too, what we forgot to mention, that Samsung actually in their tech, they’ve got two processors. So one that sort of individually control the RGB and then another to enhance and improve, whereas Hisense has one to do it all. And I forget the name of the the chip, but that is also a factor as well. Like how much, how much do you need to run the TV and get the best outcome? Samsung, who, you know, been top TV brand for 20 years, thought, well, 2 processors is better than 1, which I think, yeah, it’s— but that’s not to say though that the Hisense TV wasn’t made. I really like that TV. It is so clear.

[00:55:33] Trevor: Oh, here’s This is what blew me away. Yeah, Hisense UR9. So they’re top of the line.

[00:55:40] Stephen: UR9 RGB Mini LED, top of the line RGB. So we reviewed the same TV. Yep.

[00:55:44] Trevor: Now what I was not aware of was this was glare-free.

[00:55:50] Stephen: Yeah.

[00:55:50] Trevor: So yeah, you know, my favorite thing to do unboxing a TV if you get it first, because obviously in our world you box them back up again and it goes to someone else, they don’t get to have this pleasure. But anyway, was take all the stickers off it, right? Including the big one that’s on the screen. So I said to Harry, let’s, let’s video it. And I, as soon as I pull it back, I think I swore because I’m like, oh, I could see the reflection. I did downstairs in front of the banner. I could see the reflection of all the EFTM logos and I pulled it off and I’m like, oh, they’re diffused, they’re gone. It’s glare-free. I had no idea because the TVs we saw at CES were not glare-free though, because they were for the North American market. And I’ve been saying for 3 months.

[00:56:20] Stephen: Well, that’s what we learned. Maybe we had the Hisense event last week. Remember we were sitting with Cleo and he was saying, no, Australian market had those ones, American. Yeah, that’s why we live in bright, bright environments.

[00:56:31] Trevor: And so I’ve been saying now since January, basically Samsung’s got the leg up this year because they’ve got glare-free, and I think it’s better than the others. Yeah, but actually it’s Hisense and Samsung. Yeah, Hisense’s glare-free is excellent, diffuses the light beautifully.

[00:56:45] Stephen: I’ll, I’ll rec— I’ll default to— I reckon Samsung’s are slightly better. I reckon they’re glare-free in my environment. Looked a bit— was a bit less, uh, Hisense was still excellent, like in the top 2. But I know Samsung seemed to diffuse more. And also, like, you know how when it’s not just a matter of getting rid of the reflection, but if there is a reflection, like dulling it down, diffusing it. Yeah, so the diffusion on the Samsung I felt was a little bit better than the Hisense.

[00:57:16] Trevor: But LG’s argument is that glare-free diffusion takes away from the picture and the color. There’s no way. Way that’s the case.

[00:57:22] Stephen: No, I don’t think so, mate.

[00:57:23] Trevor: It looks exceptional. I watched Top Gun Maverick, I watched the F1 movie, I watched a bunch of YouTube, I just watched a lot of content. And yep, and every time I— now this is, it’s harder because we weren’t comparing an older versus a new, so I couldn’t see the color, but I could feel that there was more. Yeah, you know, and I was checking the colors, it was crazy. And yeah, mate, that was an impressive TV.

[00:57:43] Stephen: I did, uh, I watched Lucy, you know, the one with Scarlett Johansson.

[00:57:47] Trevor: No, so not Lucy, you got some explaining to do.

[00:57:50] Stephen: The movie, we’ve done it on the pod, on the movie show. And this was, we actually stayed at the hotel. Remember when we were in Taipei with HTC? The hotel that they were, that first scene was in, we were there, we stayed there. And what inspired me to use that movie was that it came up in my memories that I had a shot from, you know, I love to compare shots from where I’ve been in movies. And that came up in my memories. I thought that’d be a good one. ‘Cause at the start, there’s a lot of really good color like background color, bright on dark color as well, right? Like when she’s in the lobby and all that.

[00:58:22] Trevor: Yep.

[00:58:23] Stephen: And mate, I gotta say, and I, in my review, I got a shot from just from a regular LED TV and from the Mini RGB Mini LED, and mate, it’s night and day. The differences are incredible how much better the RGB version is, because not only does it add— see, that’s what people don’t understand, right, is that you’re working with the same resolution, but what RGB does is create so much more detail through the color. So having— being able to identify color better means better contrast, better clarity, so that it all comes together. So you see the pattern in her skirt and, you know, you see her face, her skin color is really natural.

[00:59:03] Trevor: You’ve got to remember what we’re talking about here is the ability to see more colors that you would normally see in real life. Yeah, and with the number we gave in previous conversations was that your eyes see 100% of colors. Yeah, the traditional television sees 45% of them. Yeah, and RGB TV sees 75%, which is pretty good.

[00:59:20] Stephen: Pretty good.

[00:59:20] Trevor: It’s pretty impressive. Yeah, the only thing now, beautiful sound to the Devialet sound system, and it’s excellent.

[00:59:26] Stephen: The payoff, the trade-off there is that the TV’s pretty fat, but it’s fat. You’re not carrying the TV around your pocket, so it’s also heavy.

[00:59:32] Trevor: It’s heavier than pretty much any other TV.

[00:59:34] Stephen: Well, you know You know what, I think that’s a great payoff trade-off to have that better sound. Yeah, why not? You’re not going to carry the TV around the house every day.

[00:59:44] Trevor: So on a wall-mounted, it’s a thick TV, it’s 4.25 centimeters.

[00:59:48] Stephen: Yeah, okay, yeah, it’s a bit thick, true, true that. But, um, it had speakers top and on the sides. Yeah, subbies on the back. Yeah, so what is it, 4.1.2 out of the box, which is Awesome.

[01:00:01] Trevor: Yeah, you know, talking OLED pricing, that’s the challenge, right? The challenge is, is it— which do you choose, Stephen?

[01:00:11] Stephen: All right, well, that was another part of my review that I said, well, this is as close to OLED blacks as you can— as I’ve ever seen, right, with a non-OLED TV.

[01:00:20] Trevor: Yeah.

[01:00:20] Stephen: Would you agree with that?

[01:00:21] Trevor: Yes.

[01:00:21] Stephen: Oh mate, but this is— there was actually—

[01:00:24] Trevor: I think there was an example, was it at the Samsung thing? And they were— they, they played something on it. Oh my God, look at that. It’s so black. Like the screen on the, on the mini LED was gray with the, like with a person in it.

[01:00:37] Stephen: And I went, oh my God, bit smoky.

[01:00:39] Trevor: Yeah, crazy good. So, so just for context, right? If you look at the Hisense 65-inch R9, so they’re top of the line, $4,000.

[01:00:47] Stephen: Okay, for that money in retail, maybe not. Let me get the price. So what is it? $3,999, 65-inch.

[01:00:54] Trevor: It’s $4 cheaper in retail at the moment, right?

[01:00:56] Stephen: Okay.

[01:00:56] Trevor: Um, LG’s G Series is $1,000 more, so brush that.

[01:01:01] Stephen: 65-inch?

[01:01:02] Trevor: Yes.

[01:01:02] Stephen: Okay.

[01:01:03] Trevor: But their C Series is basically— it’s, it’s retail, RRP is the same, but you’ll find it for $300 less. I’ve got to tell you, 65— yeah, so just compare, same size, apples for apples.

[01:01:14] Stephen: Yep.

[01:01:15] Trevor: 65-inch TV, I’ve got the choice of, um, Samsung’s OLED, LG’s OLED, and, and Hisense’s RGB. Yeah, they’re roughly the same price, the same retail price, but Samsung’s $400 cheaper, LG’s $300 cheaper, and Samsung’s 65-inch top-of-the-line RGB is $400, $500 more. I’m, I’m, I’m probably still going the LG C6, mate, I’m telling you.

[01:01:43] Stephen: But, but another consideration though is, uh brightness, or how bright— like, these RGBs will be brighter.

[01:01:49] Trevor: As you said earlier, mate, sometimes too much, too bright.

[01:01:52] Stephen: You’re right, but there are some— in some cases where people are looking for that. Uh, yeah, and, and with the brightness also, does the LG— do the OLEDs have the glare-free?

[01:02:01] Trevor: They have anti-reflection.

[01:02:02] Stephen: Anti-reflection. Yeah, but you get away with it because, uh, I think— yeah, I, I think that there’ll be people looking at that and thinking, yeah, do I need, do I need that brightness? Do I? Because you know You know what, brightness on a TV is kind of like audio quality. You know, like to you, you might think, yeah, too much. To someone else, I might think that’s perfect. Yeah, it’s subjective. So there’s the advantage of RGB is brightness. The advantage of OLED is, you know, thinner form factor, the black levels, great color. And yeah, so it’s a toss of the coin really. It’s a 50/50, that one.

[01:02:36] Trevor: Well, I think the answer to the question is, are you buying the Hisense RGB or the LG OLED? Is, what rooms are going in. Because if it’s a bright room with windows, you get the Hisense with the glare-free. Yeah, true.

[01:02:45] Stephen: And you know what, if you want, um, like the audio, I reckon the audio quality will sell the Hisense. Like, yeah, how many times have— and I said this in my review and on Tech God as well— how many times have we seen Samsung set up a TV, beautiful big TV in a room, and there’s a soundbar with it? It needed the soundbar to sound— it sounded okay on own, but it needed the soundbar to sound amazing. The Hisense TV on its own sounded amazing.

[01:03:13] Trevor: Not true. Yeah.

[01:03:14] Stephen: So that’s a big— it’s a massive point in there on their side of the ledger, having the great audio quality out of the box. Yeah.

[01:03:26] Trevor: We’ve run out of time, but next week. Yeah, I’m writing it on next week. We’re going to talk about HP only because We went to an event this week.

[01:03:34] Stephen: Yeah.

[01:03:34] Trevor: And there’s a lot to get through. But the one thing that I want to unpack next week is the fact that NPUs, Neural Processing Units, overrated because GPUs can do— GPUs are doing all the work.

[01:03:46] Stephen: Yeah.

[01:03:47] Trevor: NPUs are only there for low resource, long-term stuff. Yeah. The GPU is doing all the cool stuff.

[01:03:53] Stephen: All the heavy lifting. Yeah.

[01:03:55] Trevor: Is happening with the GPU. I was a bit blown away by that.

[01:03:57] Stephen: That was pretty cool. That was a good demo at the W-HOT Hotel?

[01:04:00] Trevor: The H— what are you talking about?

[01:04:01] Stephen: The hotel. Sorry, excuse me, HP Hotel. Were you downstairs at the start for the little briefing and then you go up to the room? Is that what you did? Is that how your session was?

[01:04:10] Trevor: Where we met and then we went upstairs?

[01:04:11] Stephen: How long were you downstairs for?

[01:04:12] Trevor: 35 seconds.

[01:04:13] Stephen: Seriously? 45 minutes down there?

[01:04:16] Trevor: Yeah, yeah.

[01:04:17] Stephen: You went to the— what in— what sec— I went to the morning session, you went to the evening session.

[01:04:21] Trevor: I went to the influencer session.

[01:04:24] Stephen: But there was a couple in my group.

[01:04:25] Trevor: There was one guy in my group, shout out Connor. He, I heard him say to several people, I’ve only been posting on the internet for a month. This is my first event.

[01:04:35] Stephen: Wow. Quick study.

[01:04:36] Trevor: I’m like, wow.

[01:04:37] Stephen: So is this the guy, one of the guys doing the demo?

[01:04:39] Trevor: No, one of the guys in my group.

[01:04:41] Stephen: Oh, right, okay.

[01:04:42] Trevor: One of the, okay. I’m like, geez, okay, mate.

[01:04:45] Stephen: He’s an influencer.

[01:04:46] Trevor: Well, he is now. He’s been invited to an event.

[01:04:47] Stephen: He’s got a lot of followers obviously already and he’s decided, you know what, I’m gonna become a tech influencer.

[01:04:51] Trevor: I looked. Oh no, he’s not, but he’s not a tech influencer. He’s just, you know, lifestyle influencer.

[01:04:55] Stephen: Yeah.

[01:04:56] Trevor: You know, goes for a run.

[01:04:57] Stephen: We’re all lifestyle influencers. What do you mean?

[01:04:59] Trevor: Yeah, no one’s watching you go for a run.

[01:05:01] Stephen: Not you guys.

[01:05:02] Trevor: Trust me, this guy’s DMs, it’s doing very well. I’ve got no doubt. Yeah, right, hey? He’s a good style of a bloke. He’s doing all right. All right, all right.

[01:05:12] Stephen: Yep.

[01:05:12] Trevor: I was with him and a doctor.

[01:05:16] Stephen: Geez.

[01:05:16] Trevor: Yeah.

[01:05:16] Stephen: Was it Dr. Uggs?

[01:05:17] Trevor: It was a wild doctor. Unit. It was a wild unit. Anyway, Dr. Uggs, who spells out drugs.

[01:05:24] Stephen: So yeah, if so, if you’re— you’ll be Dr. Uggs if you’re acting a bit silly. Dr. Uggs, you’re on drugs.

[01:05:30] Trevor: Anyway, that one, Lily.

[01:05:33] Stephen: Less references to the slang of the ’80s. Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s an aged bit, I reckon.

[01:05:40] Trevor: All right, um, anyway, there’s going to be more RGB talk this this year. You should get a dollar for every time we talk about RGB.

[01:05:46] Stephen: If you’re lucky, we don’t have drinking game. You’ll be absolutely hammered after one of our episodes. Yeah, yeah. So go hard.

[01:05:53] Trevor: Yeah, AI and RGB. They’re on your bingo card for 2026. You are going to be smashed.

[01:05:59] Stephen: You’re going to be sloshed, baby.

[01:06:01] Trevor: All right, Two Blokes Talking Tech, we’ll be back next week. Thank you to Arlo and thank you to Netgear. Uh, let’s do it all again next week, Stephen.

[01:06:06] Stephen: I’ll think about it.

[01:06:06] Trevor: Oh, come on.

[01:06:07] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech. With Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[01:06:17] Trevor: Nearly poured that on myself.