Houses come with many inherent dangers often involving wind, water and fire.
Today, we will talk about preventative measures you should take to protect yourself and your home, as well as what to do in an emergency.
Ohio State is at the forefront of quantum science, embracing the new technology through research, a new partnership and forthcoming classes.
Recently, it has seemed like almost everything is raising in prices. Gas, electricity and now PC Motherboards. In other gaming news, the return of Grand Theft Auto with its 6thgame will debut a preview on Netflix on August 27.
Then, we will discuss the unveiling of the new Google Pixel 11 which will be happening this week.
And, there are new ways to keep your home safe, specifically your outdoor gates and garage. Learn more about these outdoor alarm systems, as well as other tech news.
Guests:
- Paul Hope, home expert and deputy content editor, Consumer Reports
- Jay Gupta, physics professor, Ohio State University
- Shawnta Jackson, executive director, QuSTEAM Consultant
- Russell Holly, director of commerce content, CNET
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to Tech Tuesday from All Sides with Amy Juravich, a show where we share stories about science, technology, and the future of our environment. Homes come with a whole multitude of problems. They can be flooded from rainstorms, have their power cut off by fallen trees, or have a kitchen fire due to a cooking accident. But there are some measures you can take to ensure your home stays standing. Here to talk about wind, fire and water safety regarding your home is Paul Hope, home expert and deputy content editor of Consumer Reports. Welcome to the show, Paul.
Paul Hope: Thanks so much for having me.
Juravich: I like your last name here, we're going to talk about having hope for the future of our house, right? For sure. Right?
Hope: For sure, for sure.
Juravich: All right. So I would be remiss to say we're here in Columbus, Ohio. I don't know where you are, but we just had some severe storms roll through. I got a new I got a weather alert within the past five minutes that told me that we had 82 mile an hour winds in central Ohio and we had a lot of rain, like apparently sideways rain. I'm in a radio studio with no windows, so I didn't know any of this. So so we have a very timely conversation here for us today, Paul. Um many homes in ohio are surrounded by trees usually quite large ones so if one was to land on your home or a big branch hits your house what should you do what's your immediate recommendation.
Hope: Absolutely. So, you know, the very first thing you want to do in an emergency like that is make sure that everything you do is sort of designed to keep you safe. So make sure, first and foremost, that there's no immediate risk to you or anyone else in the home. If if you have a multi story home, the first thing you want to do is make sure that anyone on the upper stories of your home gets the downstairs. Make sure they're safe, especially kids and pets.
Second, you want to start to assess the damage. So in the case of a really gigantic tree falling and hitting your home, that's sort of a no-brainer, right? That's an obvious case for going through your insurance company. If it's lighter damage, that requires maybe a little bit more investigation before you file a claim. So once you're sure everyone's safe, You want to start to document the damage so the best way to do that is to turn on location services on a smartphone Start taking pictures and video Again, only do that from places where it's safe. You certainly don't want to climb onto your roof in that kind of event and take photos from there, but if you can go across the street to a neighbor's house, maybe even ask to go upstairs in their home if they have a second or third story and take photos just to really document the extent of the damage.
At that point, it's usually time for a big tree to get insurance involved. They'll typically hook you up with a licensed contractor in your area. Who can come out, inspect the damage, and maybe make some immediate, you know, remediations, getting rid of the tree, putting up tarps or other coverings, just to keep water from getting inside the house while you plan a sort of longer term repair.
Juravich: Well, and then trees can also, if they don't hit your house, they can hit power lines. They can cut off power for hours, sometimes days. In these situations, generators can be helpful, but should everyone own a generator if they can? What's your recommendation?
Hope: It's a great question you know the the short answer is if you live somewhere that is prone to prolonged power outages generator often make sense so. If you live somewhere rural where you've had an extended outage lasting a day or more, that's certainly a strong case for getting a generator. Certainly anybody who has any kind of electronic equipment that is dependent upon electricity, it usually really does make sense to consider a generator That said, if you live in an area where there may be buried power lines or where there aren't frequent outages or when you do have them if they don't last as long, it may not be as crucial for those folks. But it's certainly a good thought and frankly, something that's getting more important as time goes on and we have more and more severe weather events.
Juravich: Yeah, we had thousands of people in central Ohio without power as of this morning before this latest storm that just blew through went through and this storm had 80 mile per hour wind. So I'm guessing there's going to be a lot more power outages. If you don't have a generator, what should you do if you lose power? Do you have advice?
Hope: Sure. I mean, certainly, it's not ideal. You can sometimes get a generator even during an outage. Major home centers and like Home Depot and Lowe's, for example, both really work when there are large storms or large severe weather events forecast for an area. They will often shift inventory to try to prioritize. Those areas. So it's not uncommon to see frequent restocking of models during a prolonged outage in a particular area. But it's not ideal, right? You know, a generator is really something you want to have ahead of Ideally, you want to have a licensed electrician install. Something called a transfer switch or an interlock device, which will let you use the generator, not just to plug in individual appliances, but to power pretty much your whole house.
So you can certainly consider getting a generator. It's obviously better well in advance of an event like that. But if you're suffering through a temporary outage, there are some things you wanna sort of make sure you have on hand. Water is first and foremost, the most important. You wanna you wanna plan on having about one gallon per person per day of an outage you know obviously it's hard to know how long an average might last so you know air on the side of having more rather than less and don't don't forget to account for pets.
Juravich: Will my water stop working if I have a power outage?
Hope: You know, it depends on where you live. So roughly a fifth of the country is on well water, meaning they have private wells. So in the event of a power outage, anybody with a well will likely not have access to water, or at least after certain points.
Juravich: Obviously, I just showed you, I do not have that, that's not my situation, yeah, okay, I live in the middle of the city, yeah.
Hope: Generally, generally speaking, if you're in a city or an urban or suburban area, you know, the water should stay on but it's still not not a bad idea, certainly shelf stable food you know that's that's another big consideration obviously you're not going to have a refrigerator. Gas, you know, even a gas stove won't typically work unless you light it manually, you can cook on things, you know, like a grill, for example, is a great option during a power outage, because it will continue to work even without electricity. So if you do need or want to cook, that's that's a good item to have.
But you really want to sort of be prepared for anything, you know, the, the sort of general rule of thumb is you want to have flashlights, backup battery power packs, you want to make sure that everything you sort of depend on is charged up fully ahead of time. Both because you might need to sort of hunger down and wait out the outage for certainly in the event where you might want to relocate you want to make sure that you have all the essentials that you're going to need things like medications copies of passports ID. And if you do have to leave your home you know it's a great idea to sort print some backup copies of things like your deed your homeowners insurance policy lease or rental agreement anything you might be in the process of filing a claim if it's sort of really big weather event where are you might have to get insurance involved.
Juravich: Talk to me about the safety of, if you keep your refrigerator and freezer closed and there's a power outage, how long is the food still good in there?
Hope: You know, it really depends on the refrigerator itself, how densely things are packed. The best advice we can give is to try not to open your refrigerator or freezer if you can avoid it. You know it's another good reason to sort of rely more on shelf stable food in those events. The rule of thumb is food should never spend more than two hours above 40 degrees. So. An easy way to check that is stick a thermometer in your fridge. If you have an instant read thermometer, like the kind that you would use for checking a roast chicken, for example, you can place that in the fridge. Leave it there on the shelf for a minute or so. Once the temperature goes above 40, you really do want to throw out anything that's perishable in the bridge. But up until then, it's still safe to use.
Juravich: OK, so you're not going to give me a number of hours. You're going to tell me the temperature, because you can't guarantee the temperature per hour. Is that what you mean? Exactly. But if you can. Exactly.
Hope: But if you keep the, I will say, if you keep the fridge closed, you may be pleasantly surprising. Refrigerators are not on all the time. They have compressors that cycle on and off, and they're very well insulated. So the longer you leave it closed, the better your chances that you won't have to throw anything out. So you can get, in some cases, six, eight hours, even more. There are cases where you can probably safely go overnight if you're keeping that fridge closed and if it's sort of densely packed with a lot of cold food in there to begin with. So the real trick is trying to keep it closed until the power comes on, and at that point it's a good idea to check the temperature of what's in your fridge and make sure it's still safe to eat.
Juravich: This is Tech Tuesday From All Sides on 89.7 NPR News, and we're talking about how to keep your home safe from wind, fire, and water damage with Bob Hope, home expert and deputy content editor at Consumer Reports. There's a quote in an article written by your colleague, Jennifer Cook, and the article's called "Wind, Fire, Water, How to Keep Your Home Safe," and it says, if it rains at your home, your home can flood. Um, and so this was said by, um, Mark, uh, Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute. I mean, talk to, talk to me about ways a person's home can flood. Um, cause I'm, you know, I'm thinking about rainwater, but then there's also, I guess, burst pipes too. But what does that quote mean if you're, if it, if it rains at your home, it can flood?
Hope: It's a great quote and a great insight. You know, it's much like he says there, you know, it's severe weather is getting more and more common. And as you were just describing at the start of the show, you know flash flooding is a much more common phenomenon than it once was. There have been a number of high profile cases. So. Basically, the capability for it to rain a lot heavily in one area that may not be prepped for it, right? Not every area has sort of extensive storm drains and there's a lot of water runoff. Very often, it's common during a severe storm to see that water accumulate in a basement or a crawl space.
And water can really do a lot damage. It's involved in a huge number of claims every year, and it can do damage sort of far and beyond. The obvious things, you know, can obviously fry electronics, it can damage drywall, it can, you know, really sort of wreak havoc and leave behind mold and other things that you have to deal with. So it's just good to be mindful of that and to have a plan and systems in place for how to get rid of water if you do have a flood in the basement or a crawl space.
Juravich: I also wanted to talk about something that was mentioned in this article is leaving your home unattended for a while can bring up some problems. What sort of problems do homes face if no one's in them for a little while? Like if you go away for a month or so in the summer, or maybe you're a snowbird who leaves in the winter, is there something people are supposed to do if their house is going to sit empty.
Hope: Sure. The real risk that comes from leaving your house unattended is, of course, you're not there to stop anything shortly after it starts. So one of the biggest issues that people face are frozen or burst pipes, certainly for snowbirds who might go somewhere warmer during the winter months. So it's a great idea in those cases to shut off all sources of water. So that's the water main. It's also exterior fixtures, things like hose bibs. Disconnect any garden hoses, leave faucets open because that can help. You know, once you have the water shut off a faucet that's left open, if a pipe does freeze, that pressure has somewhere to go. And it's less likely to cause the pipe to burst in your absence. So those are all great things to do.
Juravich: Before we run out of time, I had teased at the beginning that we would talk about wind, water, and fire. So we haven't talked about fire yet. Fire is another danger. Mostly it happens because of cooking accidents is what I read. Yeah, so what is the first thing someone should do if they discover that there's a fire in their kitchen?
Hope: The very first thing folks should make sure to do is never leave food unattended on the stove or in any other appliance. That one step alone will prevent the vast majority of kitchen fires, or at the very least will make sure that you can deal with them before they sort of grow out of control. That said, if you do have a fire begin, it's important to size up what kind of fire you have. So if it's in an appliance, like a toaster oven or a microwave, for example, you may be dealing with an electrical fire. Whereas, you know, if it's a greasy pan on the stove that's caught fire, that's typically grease fire.
In that example, you can often smother the fire very quickly with a lid or sometimes even with flour to just extinguish it and get rid of the source of fat, which is easy to ignite. In general, you want to have what's called a multipurpose or combination fire extinguisher somewhere nearby the kitchen, certainly in basements, garages, anywhere that you have appliances capable of producing heat or flame. That's really your best line of defense against a broad spectrum of different fire types and the best thing you can do as a homeowner before having to call 911 and call in the fire department. Hmm
Juravich: You mentioned this briefly earlier, but I wanted to just circle back to it for a minute. The Consumer Reports recommends having an emergency bag. People should keep in their home just in case. What do you recommend is in an emergency bag?
Hope: Sure, so an emergency bag is great for any disaster that might cause you to have to leave the home for an extended period. So certainly again, you wanna focus on food and water for everybody in your family or in your party, a can opener for any shelf stable food. Fully charged phones, backup battery packs, laptops in some cases, certainly any medical gear that you rely on, things like CPAP machines, oxygen, but also just basic things like prescription eyeglasses. That's an easy thing to overlook in an emergency, but really, really important if you need them. And then a radio is a great add-on as our flashlights, especially if you're somewhere where there might be a widespread power outage, where it might be a while before the power is restoring your area. And then copies of things like passports, IDs, insurance documents, a copy of your lease or rental agreement if you're a renter, and or copy of the title to your house and your homeowners insurance policy just in case you do need to get insurance involved.
Juravich: Well, you mentioned extended power outages and the Columbus dispatch is reporting right now that we have more than 90,000 people without power at this exact moment in central Ohio. So for people who are listening, I guess, do you have any advice for what they should do today when they have no power?
Hope: You know, make sure to report it early and accurately. That's one of the best things you can do. It feels very overwhelming at times, because there's really so much you can't do in these moments. The first thing you should do, other than making sure you're staying safe, is to report the outage, help the utility companies identify the concentration of outages, because it can help them make important decisions about where to prioritize people who are going to restore the service.
And then check back periodically, of course, for updates on the restoration time. The good news about outages is that the vast majority of power outages in the United States are short-lived. It typically comes back on within a few hours. It's really those sort of extreme cases that we all hear about that are very high profile. But the good news is for the majority of folks, power does usually come back on within six hours or so.
Juravich: Well, thank you for a very timely conversation today, Paul. When we planned this, we didn't know it was going to we were going to have severe weather today. But we've been talking to Paul Hope, home expert and deputy content editor at Consumer Reports about how to keep your home safe. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Coming up, we're going to talk about the next frontier of innovation, quantum science and quantum computing. And Ohio State is on the cutting edge of it all. That's when Tech Tuesday from all sides continues on eighty nine seven NPR News. This is Tech Tuesday from All Sides with Amy Juravich, a show where we share stories about science, technology, and the future of our environment. Can a cat in a box be alive and dead at the same time? Quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger insisted the answer to that was yes. But quantum physics goes beyond strange thought experiments. Quantum computing is a field that has bloomed recently from the quirky world of quantum physics. President Trump recently signed an executive order ushering in the next frontier of quantum innovation. The Center for Quantum Innovation Science and Engineering at Ohio State is committed to advancing that mission. And joining us now to talk about quantum computing, we have Jay Gupta, physics professor at Ohio state university. Welcome to the show, Jay. Thank you. And also with us, we have Shawnta Jackson, executive director of Q-Steam, a nonprofit that is revisioning how quantum information science and engineering is taught. Thank you for joining us today, Shanta. Thank you, for having me. So quantum technology is a hot topic right now. Jay, can you give us a brief overview of what quantum computing is for someone who has no idea what it is?
Jay Gupta: Sure, so I will say that I have probably just a slightly better understanding of quantum computing than perhaps a layman. So it's a really interdisciplinary field that requires expertise from lots of different areas. Maybe at its essence quantum computing is built on a qubit. So a good way to understand this is comparison with regular bits in our computers or in our phones. So those are based on silicon transistors, which are essentially light switches that turn on or off zero or one. Quantum computer operates on a qubit, and a qu bit is special in the sense that it can be zero or one or any superposition of those zeros or ones. So it turns out that if you can develop algorithms and architectures that use quantum bits, you can solve certain problems much faster than any supercomputer based on classical bits.
Juravich: OK, so so Shawnta, let's bring you in here. How does quantum computing differ from classical computing that we all probably understand a little bit better?
Shawnta Jackson: Again, so Jay has more experience than I. I'm a lay person, so plain language. My background is in social and behavioral health. And from how, my explanation would, more so, I guess I would talk about how it helps to solve problems. So as Jay mentioned, with classical computing, if you think about your computer, your laptop, you have, think about a light switch, it's off, on, off, one. So that's your zero or one. But then with, as Jay mentioned, with your qubits, and now we're talking about quantum computing, think about a door. And we have 1 million keys to this door. With classical computing, we would have to start with key one to see if that door opens, key two, key three, and so on. However, with quantum computing, it doesn't have to be, so back to this light switch, it doesn' have to off or on. It could be both simultaneously. And so with quantum competing, we could run the probability of multiple keys simultaneously at the same time, instead of those one million, if that makes sense.
Juravich: It does make sense. I think it makes sense. What did you think of that example with the keys, Jay?
Gupta: It's always interesting to hear people with different perspectives try to explain this field. I think what Shanta is describing is what we'd call parallel computing. So quantum computers can be massively parallel compared to conventional computers. So just like in recent years we've advanced AI using parallel combinations of graphical processing units, quantum computing offers even exponentially greater parallelism to problems.
Juravich: Yeah, well, I could see how it would be faster to have a quantum computer analyze all million keys rather than the classical computer trying each one at a time, right? Yes. Absolutely. I appreciate that, Shanta. So Jay, Ohio State recently received a multi-million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. It's like a little more than two million dollars over two years each, so four to five million. How will this money be used to push quantum technology into the real world? Talk to me about that.
Gupta: Yeah, so one thing I would mention at the outset is a lot of us have heard of quantum computing in large part because it grabs headlines and it's being invested in very heavily by very large corporations like Google, Microsoft, IBM, things like that, as well as startups like D-Wave, for example, people may have heard it. However, the field of quantum information science and technology is much broader and includes sensing, networking, communications.
And so, The grant that I'm a part of is a multi-disciplinary team, multi-institution team, that's focusing on an aspect of quantum technology related to sensing. So sensing could be things like magnetic fields, electrical fields, temperature, temperature gradients in like electrical devices, could be particle sensing like for radiation detection. So this grant was to explore the use of quantum, explore and develop the use of quantum sensors for a variety of... Applications.
Juravich: And President Trump signed an executive order saying that he wanted to usher in the next frontier of quantum information science and technology. So, Jay, is Ohio a national quantum hotspot?
Gupta: I would say so, yes, like it's been developing over time. I think one thing that Ohio State does well is partner and collaborate. So actually Shanta was part of an initial educational effort called Q-Steam that started something around 2018. That was to develop undergraduate quantum curricular materials. And, you know, a team of us at OSU kind of helped lead that effort, as well as leverage it into the grant that we're getting today.
Juravich: Yeah, Shanta, let's talk about the grant first. How does getting this grant money reflect to the larger national trend of investing in quantum technology from your perspective?
Jackson: Um, from, well, from my perspective, um, well there's a few things that I want to say. I want, actually, if it's okay, I can respond to Jay and kind of relate it back to Ohio. Yeah, I just wanted to, I wanted to highlight, so in addition to the National Science Foundation, the NSF funding that has been happening for the past couple of years on the national level. So, for example, NSF Just Awarded, it's a... Another cohort or for its next phase of national quantum virtual laboratory funding. So that includes the Ohio State University, but also other partners such as University of Michigan. You have Yale, you have other Duke, other institutions as well. So there's a lot of national funding that has been implemented and the majority of that funding usually goes to like your higher level PhD programs.
And with Q STEAM, we're focusing more now, we have shifted our direction to focus more so on community colleges because you do not have to be a physicist to understand quantum information and science engineering or to participate. So as Jay mentioned, there's a significant investment nationally and now there is more like explicit. Funding that's happening, not just from the governmental level, but then also you have investors. So for example, I was just reading this morning Morgan Stanley has an explicit investment happening in quantum. Probably quantum computing is really a popular, more of the popular, I guess, discipline.
But the state has already made significant investments in the broader infrastructure. And as I mentioned, that explicit part of that strategy, one example is that this year in 2026, the Ohio House passed legislation to establish a Frontier Technologies and Quantum Commission. And they're looking to examine quantum computing, AI, biotechnology, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies and make recommendations as to how Ohio should prepare and compete on the national level and so from my understanding this current legislation is is under consideration now in the Ohio Senate.
Juravich: This is Tech Tuesday from all sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about quantum computing with Jay Gupta, physics professor from Ohio State University, and Shanta Jackson, executive director of QSteam. Shanta, I gave a brief description of Qsteam at the beginning of the segment, but why don't you tell me more about what you are doing in particular, and starting with what does Qsteem stand for? I mean, is it steam like we think of, you know, STEM with the A? Tell me about Qsteame.
Jackson: So STEM with the A is including arts. And so Q STEAM is, so you have the QU, so your quantum science. Oh, wow, a little loss of words here. So you have your quantum, science, you have technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. And so that's Q STEam. And Q STEAm is a local, we're based in Columbus, Ohio. However, we serve a national audience. So we consider ourselves a national nonprofit, even though home is in Columbus, Ohio. And we were established in 2022 and what we are doing our mission is to revolutionize the way quantum education quantum information science engineering is taught. And so again, as I mentioned, in order to to understand quantum and to participate, you do not have to be a physicist. And what we're looking to do. Is to address the workforce gap.
And we started out from an NSF convergence grant, which was QSTEAMB initiative, which was led out of the Ohio State University with other university partners. However, QSTEEMB initiative has now transitioned to QSTEAME, the nonprofit organization. And so we have four dimensions or four pillars that we focus on. So we have concept. And we're looking to take those from concept to application, but then also we're look at societal impact and then we wanna translate that into careers as well. And so we're focusing on taking, you have theory, but we're we're focussing more to apply that theory and into practice.
Juravich: So, Jay, I mean, Shanta's talking about getting more people involved in this field, right? Because you need more people who understand it, who want to go into quantum computing in order to expand it. And Ohio State is a leading research university. You've created what's called, are you calling it QGIP, G-I-P?
Gupta: Yeah, to me it sounded better to say Q-Jip with a soft G.
Juravich: Yeah. OK. OK, QGIP, which stands for the Quantum Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. And it's going to be providing some of the nation's first standalone masters and doctoral degrees in quantum information science. So tell me about this program. Has it already started? What are the goals?
Gupta: So the kind of playing off what Shanto is saying about quantum technology is not just for physicists. So we started this effort in 2022. We have funding from the NSF to help launch the program. The faculty team that I'm leading for developing this program has a chemist, electrical engineer, computer science, material science, and mathematics. So the idea of this program is really provide foundational training in quantum information science to students with any of those backgrounds. And then they can transition to either a master's degree where they focus mainly on courses. They could do a master thesis or they could do PhD dissertation research in this area.
Juravich: Shanta, I mean, in order to have people to go into this master's program or to get their doctorate in quantum information science, you have to have students younger who know what it is. Right? So is that where you come in? Are you trying to expose more people to quantum education?
Jackson: That is correct. And so Q-Steam is building accessible curriculum partnerships and pathways. And you have different levels and criteria of, you know, how to enter into the field or for education. But there's no right or wrong and there's not one way to do that. One of the things that we are finalizing now is a two-week module, and it's designed for individuals that don't have any background as a relative physics or quantum. And then plain languages can my grandmother understand and explain what quantum is or what quantum information science engineering is and so we're introducing this module to community colleges and then we'll follow up with the full 15-week course to support faculty in implementing that and so yes definitely we want a skilled workforce and then not and not everyone is going to excel to the four-year level or even the graduate or PhD level, but we still need to have that implementation and you know those careers that you know the tools the manufacturing industry we need technicians and so that's what Q STEAM's focus is on as it relates to focusing on community colleges.
Juravich: Jay, with your graduate program, I mean, if you started it in 2022, how's it going? Do you have do you have students? Where are you at?
Gupta: Um So, yeah, so the program we got funding from NSF that kicked off a relatively long phase for a curriculum proposal that has to be approved by multiple stakeholders both within the university and also externally. So I'm happy to say that the program passed through the final approval stage by the Ohio Department of Higher Education just in July. We'll be launching our application portal for this fall. Accepting students next fall.
Juravich: Next fall, okay. So your first students will be able to join the masters and or doctorate program next fall.
Gupta: Yes, in the meantime, we've used our funding to support current OSU students and some of the participating departments to help us pilot aspects of the program. So for example, we'd been running some of our quantum information courses already offered as electives in the participating department, and we've use our trainee funding to help gain feedback on are these courses accessible for someone from different backgrounds.
Juravich: I mean, I'm not shocked that it takes a while for things to move through education processes. So about a four-year process there for you. Okay. All right. We'll leave it there. But just to end on with both of you, I wanted to ask you what receiving these grants from the National Science Foundation, having President Trump talk about making basically America on the cutting edge of quantum computing and Ohio State leading the way with that, what does this all mean to you? What do you think about when you think of the future here?
Gupta: So I could take a first stab, but I thought one thing that was very encouraging in the executive order was kind of a very broad approach. So it's not just quantum computing, but sensing, networking, communication. So really a recognition that qubits can really impact a variety of different science and technologies. And then it also stressed workforce development. And so that's actually kind of very encouraging and the education business. Like Shanta said, being able to reach a wide range of people. Not only from different disciplines but from community colleges up through the Ph.D.
Juravich: And Shanta, for you, what does it mean to you and QSteam to have this attention be paid on Ohio, but just also quantum computing in general?
Jackson: I think, you know, it gives us an opportunity to build community, to network. We have interdisciplinary studies and skills, and there's an opportunity for entrepreneurship and, again, workforce development to outreach the connection, but then also if you think about the societal impact, for example, in healthcare. There is an opportunity for us to accelerate drug discovery and improve medical imaging.
And then there's an opportunity for national security, even you mentioned environment, even just with soil and agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, navigation, there's so many different opportunities for societal impact. And the fact that this funding gives us the opportunity to, again, to explore, but again, put it in actual practice as well.
Juravich: Well, I doubt this is the last time that I'll be talking about quantum computing on Tech Tuesday, but we'll leave it there for now. We've been talking about Quantum Computing with Jay Gupta, physics professor from Ohio State University. Thanks for your time today. You're welcome. And also Shanta Jackson, executive director of QSteam. Thank you for joining us today, Shanta.
Jackson: Thank you.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to talk about some recent tech news with Russell Holly. That is when all sides continues on 89 7 NPR news.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich, and this is Tech Tuesday, a show where we share stories about science, technology, and the future of our environment. Recently, it seems like everything costs more. Gas, electricity, now PC motherboards. In other tech news, we'll also talk about the return of "Grand Theft Auto," with its sixth game debuting soon. And then we will discuss the unveiling of the new Google Pixel 11. Joining us to talk about all these topics and more is Russell Holly, director of commerce content at CNET. Welcome back, Russell.
Russell Holly: Thank you.
Juravich: So starting with the PC motherboards, there are rumors going around on Chinese forums that claim PC motherboard prices could soon increase. Do these rumors have any truth to them and why are we finding them out on Chinese forms?
Holly: It is tough to be like, hey, so this guy heard a thing from a friend that said something and maybe we should take this entire supply chain risk seriously. But it was a lot of these same early warnings that bore out true for hard drives and RAM and other computer parts that have become just monstrously more expensive over the last year especially and are planning to become more expensive. So the idea that motherboards, you know, given the hardware necessary to make them. Becoming more expensive isn't necessarily surprising, but the claims in this were that those material costs could climb by as much as 50% before the end of the year. And that is a larger jump in all at once than what we saw with some of the other component parts.
Juravich: 50% is a lot of percent. Yes, definitely. We talked before about it was being called Ramageddon, right? Where RAM was costing more. So is this going to be the same thing? There's not a cute word for PC motherboard a-gummin. So
Holly: No, it doesn't have a cute name. And I think there are a lot of folks who have seen the cost of replacing hardware just across the board get more expensive that we moved on from cute names. But I think this is kind of all ties into the individual parts that are necessary to maintain things like data centers. I think the biggest reason that motherboards have been protected from this from so long is that by and large, consumer motherboards and server motherboards are very different pieces of technology. But as we see more folks start to build dedicated AI clients that live in your home, on your computer, physically in your house, instead of relying entirely on one that is Cloud-operated and costs tokens to use, that those component parts are starting to go up because the demand for them is increasing.
Juravich: Does this only impact people who like to build their own computers and are buying a motherboard? Or does it mean all laptops are gonna cost more?
Holly: So, laptops may be protected from this for a little while, although their prices are going to go up for other reasons, but certainly, the larger format motherboards for home PCs that you would build yourself, those are going to be the places where you will see the cost increase first, and then that will likely be followed by a new increase in cost for pre-made desktops made by companies like HP and Dell that may see those same increases after, because of the way that contracts between those organizations work.
Juravich: And I mean, I'm not the type of person who's going to build my own computer. I'm just going to buy one. So will any other electronics get more expensive? Do other things have motherboards in them that I don't know about?
Holly: Most of what you'll see for things that you would have in the home are going to be custom pieces of equipment that have been made and so will be shielded from this for a little while, but it's not really clear, you know, the rate at which all of this is expanding, you know what a relief valve would even look like as more of these companies, you know, kind of trend more and more towards, you, know, expanding the functionality of a lot of the AI tools and data center expansion and things like that. It's really not clear what is going to be the shape of this six months from now.
Juravich: Well, let's pivot to our next topic because we're gonna turn to some gaming news. Netflix is hosting a preview for "Grand Theft Auto 6." Do we know what this entails? What does it mean that Netflix is previewing Grand Thef Auto?
Holly: So any time there's a large game, it is not uncommon for the developers responsible for it, the company that's publishing it, to release a video ahead of time showing off what the game is going to be capable of, what you as the player is going to be doing, how big the world is going be, as this kind of longer form way to pull people in who weren't already ready to make that purchase. This is stuff that has typically happened on YouTube or through a livestream hosted on an individual site. It is quite new for an organization as large as Rockstar Games to partner with Netflix to basically make this a really long movie that would be available to stream on Netflix talking to you about a video game that you will be able to buy later on.
Juravich: Hmm, okay, so "Grand Theft Auto 6" is highly anticipated. People have been waiting for it for months. Why do you think they're doing this partnership with Netflix? Like why, just to create more buzz, I guess.
Holly: I think more than anything, every kind of organization that is tasked with getting their information in front of a group of people, be it political, social, entertainment, has struggled from the same kind of fracturing of how you reach people. And so Netflix is very much viewed as a large broadcast, a large microphone with a very big audience that will sign up, and the number of people who are very excited about "Grand Theft Auto 6" who also pay for Netflix. Those circles probably come pretty close to touching so it's it's you know Really unlikely that you know there are gonna be a ton of people missed with this now
They are going to release it on YouTube Almost 24 hours later So if you are not you know really desperate to be the first person to know what's going on here You don't actually need to pay for Netflix. You can just wait 24 hours But this is a new approach You know in an effort to reach as many people as possible about this game that is coming up because it has been delayed many many times and i think that there are there is a way here for rockstar to convince people that this is a real thing that is happening that this isn't uh... You know uh... A bad joker or you know a mistake and that you will actually be able to play this game soon
Juravich: Okay, so for what is going to be shown on Netflix and then YouTube a day later, is it going to be like a movie with the characters and showing what Grand Theft Auto can do, or is it going like the videos my son likes to watch where you're watching someone else play a video game?
Holly: I think it will probably be some combination of that. Typically, these things that are called extended looks include gameplay footage and explanations, but then they also contain an almost documentary-like quality to it, where some of the folks involved in its creation will take time to explain how it is that they came to build some of features within the world and some of things that you'll be able to do within the game. I mean, make no mistake, this is a very long advertisement. There isn't an entertainment quality to this like you would see with. Some of the partnerships that Game Studios have made with Netflix in the past to release, you know, kind of dedicated stories that are being told within those universes. This is very much all about what this game is going to be and how you're going to play it and what it's going to feel like when you play it.
Juravich: Netflix does offer some games. So does this signal that Netflix is maybe leaning into different type mediums in their streaming service and they're expanding what they do?
Holly: Netflix's former CEO made it very clear that they felt their biggest competitor was Twitch, the game streaming service, because there are people who would rather watch other people play games than be a part of this, and there's been a mission for Netflix as an organization to be more involved in the game space so that this kind of thing can happen. It is, you know, the idea here, Netflix is certainly not, their game platform isn't big enough to... Allow you to play something like "Grand Theft Auto 6." It requires dedicated hardware in order to play that unless they are investing in some sort of game streaming service, which they've made no real announcement for. I think that this is really just making sure that Netflix is as connected to the gaming world as they can manage at this time.
Juravich: This is Tech Tuesday from all sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about recent tech stories with Russell Holly, director of commerce content at CNET. Pivoting to the Pixel 11 phone by Google, it will be unveiled tomorrow, August 12th. What do we already know about this phone? What's been leaked?
Holly: So what we know so far, Google typically takes this time of year to announce their phone, their smartwatch, and typically some headphones. There's not usually a whole lot extra that gets announced at an event like this. And so the next iteration of their phones will be the Pixel 11. And as Google has done in the past, there is a kind of standard version and then a more capable version that they will call the Pixel Pro. Google typically takes this opportunity to highlight a brand new camera technology and increase battery performance to make up for the fact that the phone is physically larger. But then, you know, we also live in a world where phones sometimes fold in half. And so there will be the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which, you know, will be a continuation of that technology in competition with the work that Samsung has done in the past, along with a new watch that I think will be the fifth generation of the Google Pixel Watch.
Juravich: And do we know anything about this watch? Is it going to be new and improved or just slight upgrades?
Holly: That is something we know precious little about, you know, Google has been very clear at making sure that their watch looks and feels as different from an Apple watch as possible. They have a ton of investment in fitness technology after their acquisition of Fitbit as a company. So I imagine that fitness will take, you now, kind of front and center as they talk about the tech that goes into this and the way that they can kind of. Automatically work something. There has also been suspicion that this will be the first watch that Google makes that will be accessible for small-scale diving in the depth that it is able to handle without taking on water damage.
Juravich: And do we know for the phones, the foldable one and the watch, what role is Gemini gonna play in all of this? Is it huge?
Holly: Yes, this is something that Google was very clear about when they did their developer conference earlier this year. Gemini will very much be a front and center experience for this service. Google has officially retired what was originally called the Google Assistant. And the tools that were within that all got baked into Gemini. So I would imagine that that would be a significant part of this experience is how Gemini is improving. You know your internal context for the things that you do on your phone, but also, you know improvements and things like photography
Juravich: All right. Our final topic before we run out of time is last week, abode announced a new security system in outdoor sensor system. So before we discuss this new system, how are abode security systems in general? Are they good or they ones that people want to buy?
Holly: Abode is pretty competitive both in price and what their features are able to do. But they also, up until very recently, didn't do a whole lot in the way that was new or unique enough to be something that stood out massively. There is a lot of smart sensors that you can have in your house from things like your door sensors and window sensors to combination smoke and carbon monoxide sensors. But what Abode is doing here is very specifically approaching security outside your house or outside what you would consider kind of the bounds of where this kind of tech would have gone traditionally.
Juravich: The CNET piece basically says that break-ins don't usually happen at your front door. It's a side door, it's a garage, it is a side gate left open. So who are the customers for this product? It's not people, I guess, with a doorbell camera on their front door
Holly: Well, I think more than that, it's for folks whose homes include things like gates or garage doors or things like that. The two big things that were announced here were a tilt sensor for your garage door. So if somebody lifts up your garage door and causes that sensor to move, then it will send a notice to you, which is not something that a lot of sensors typically do, is protect you from the garage door And then a sensor that is very similar to your your front door sensor, but is for any gates that you have on your property so that you know, and they're they're weather safe in such a way that you can have your back gate, you know have this tech on it and if somebody walks around the back of your house and goes in through that gate, then you get a notification before they have even tried to enter your home.
Juravich: And okay, so also this garage sensor, one thing that the CNET piece highlighted is that it has 10 years of battery life. So that seems pretty good. I mean, you can just like set it up and not worry about it for a long time.
Holly: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of smart home tech that when it does run on batteries, you get that low battery warning at the worst possible moment, which is typically when you are very far from your home. And so knowing that this is a thing that will run for a really long time is a solid bit of peace of mind there because it's largely only active when there's motion.
Juravich: And just to end on, the company is called Abode, A-B-O-D-E. My brain looked at that word and saw Adobe. And I went, what is Adobe doing making outdoor gate sensors?
Holly: Yep, that is definitely something that happened a couple of times when writing the piece as well.
Juravich: Yes. So, anyway, this is not Adobe. This is Abode. And this has been Tech Tuesday on All Sides. From 89.7 NPR News, we've been talking with director of commerce content at CNET, Russell Holly. Thanks for joining us again, Russell.
Holly: Thanks for having me.
Juravich: And you're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. If you missed any part of today's show, subscribe to our podcast. You listen back at wosu.org slash all sides. You can also like the show on Facebook and follow us on Instagram. This is All Sides on 89.7 NPR News.