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Top Tech Hits and Misses for 2014; It Has Been Ten Years Since Indian Ocean Tsunami; Dow Continues to Hover Just Above 18,000 ; "The Interview" Finally Released in Theaters and Online

Aired December 26, 2014 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Welcome back, everyone.

It has been a big year in the world of technology. And hits make our life easier and change the way we experience the world around us, of course. And the misses just make us shake our heads.

So let's talk about this. Joining u to share their own top tech hits and misses for 2014 are tech writer and co-founder of the fashion- oriented app, Cloth, Seth Porges and Brett Larson, the host of "Tech Bytes."

So great to have you both with us. As I said when you sat down, I am such a nerd. I don't know anything about -- nerd will the opposite way is that I don't -- I'm not very tech savvy. So you are going to have to walk us through all of these hits and misses.

And I want to start with you, Seth, on some of the ones on your list. So we were just talking about the first one is this podcast that has really caught on and bringing people together. Talk about this podcast called Serial.

SETH PORGES. CO-FOUNDER, CLOTH: Sure. So people love to lament the end of that programming. The idea that media is so fragmented. They every watching or listening to their own thing, we don't have these shared cultural experiences we once had. What's so amazing about Serial is that this a podcast, meaning it is a lately (ph) on demand form of digital media that people are listening to at the same time, talking to about together and it's really bringing people together in a way that once seemed impossible for fragment official media.

BROWN: And let's talk about these near instant delivery apps. These are my favorite because that means I can be lazy. So Uber, which I've heard of, but (INAUDIBLE) and post mates as well. I have to admit I looked those up today and not that I looked it up, I'm going to start using them. So tell us about them.

PORGES: In the cities, these are in right now, New York has several of them and so does San Francisco, they are changing the way people are shopping. Remember how cool it was when you could get delivery overnight from Amazon for the first time? It was magic. It was a revelation. This is basically making it so you can get anything delivered from any store you can imagine as quickly as ordering a pizza.

BROWN: I already thought it was so easy in Manhattan. Like how can it get any easier? This is amazing.

PORGES: So the way I buy groceries now, I literally just open up one and type in my grocery list. Somebody goes to whole foods or trader Joe's and brings it to my house and it doesn't cost me anything extra.

BROWN: Oh, my God. I'm sure there's a debate about whether this is actually a good thing.

PORGES: That's open for debate.

BROWN: This is actually surprise me, the next one on the list is the Harry Potter escape ride at Universal Orlando. Why is that on the list?

PORGES: So I love the idea of theme parks as showcases for new technology. Historically, you look at what was shown at theme parks is oftentimes appear years before you would ever see it in your house, sort of a world fair model.

Now this ride to me shows what a big company can do when they have unlimited tech muscle and unlimited money in order to produce a ride experience that's basically designed to blow people away.

BROWN: Wow. All right. I'm sold on that.

Brett Larson, let's go to you. Let's talk about your top hits here starting with the Apple iMac with retina display.

BRETT LARSON, HOST, TECH BYTES: Yes. This thing is really -- it is something that needs to be seen. And what's fascinating about it is it's the highest resolution desk top computer on the market right now. And I know that sounds like a lot of technology mumbo jumbo, but it's also breathed some new life into the concept of the desk top computer.

Over the past couple of years, the desktop computer has slipped in favorability to more things like tablets and smart phones and laptops that we can carry with us everywhere that we go. So it's nice to see not only something beautiful on our desk tops, but also something very powerful and it's kind of reclaiming that desktop space.

BROWN: Yes, we just see revival here. Let's talk about drones. There's been a lot of talk about drones this year. And you're a fan of drones.

LARSON: I like drones, as long as you're not flying them over an airport.

BROWN: Did you get one for Christmas?

LARSON: I did not. I'm in Manhattan. I don't -- I guess I could spy on my neighbors a little more closely fly on my window. Drones have been phenomenal this year. We've seen them in -- you know, people are strapping their go-pros to them and they are flying them over. Realtors are using them to give you a bird's eye view of property that you're going to buy. People are using them to spy on their neighbors. And even Amazon has talked about using them as a means to deliver packages to your door, although I think that's probably still safely a few years away before we are going to start saving autonomous drones roaming around our cities and country sides.

BROWN: But I think we very well could see it in our future.

All right, let's talk about the last thing about the watch, right, this beautiful gadget.

LARSON: Yes. I think, you know, the Apple watch, it's funny that it's a hit because it's not even out right now. But what's good about it being even talked about is wearable technology is not new. It's been out for several years. But with Apple presenting something that's beautiful, we're talking about it again. I mean, the iPad was nothing new. There were MP3 players. The iPhone, there were already smart phones. The tablet, iPad, there were already tablets. But when Apple does it, it makes it sexy, it makes it cool. It makes people really want it.

BROWN: That's a good point.

LARSON: And that inspires the other developers to do more. But it also makes it less nerdy and more mainstream. And so, that is where the apple watch has really made wearable technology something that normal people, I'll put in air quotes so don't offend any of my nerd kin. Normal people will actually want to start using it.

BROWN: All right, so we talked about the hits, let's talk about the misses. Got to go to those. I'm going to go with you, Seth, let's get a look at your tech misses for 2014. The Amazon Fire phone topped your list. Why is that?

PORGES: I think this topped most people's list. This was a hugely hyped, the first smart phone Amazon was going to make. It was a premium product, designed to compete with the iPhone, with the high end android phones. And when it came out, the result was just kind of crickets, but nobody but bought it. And very quickly, they had to drop the price from $199 to $1.

BROWN: One-dollar?

PORGES: But they gave you Amazon prime for free.

LARSON: Such garbage. Sorry.

PORGES: So it was this interesting piece of technology. It was basically designed to be a portal to all of Amazon services. So they wanted you to buy more stuff. They're basically selling you a shopping mall and nobody really responded. The big problem being, of course, that everybody is heavily invested in the ecosystem they're already in. They already have all of their apps on androids or IOS and moving to a new platform that may not have these apps. Well, that's a really tough thing to sell to people.

BROWN: And that's all tech, you know, trial and error. See what works, see what doesn't. Hacks galore this year. The Sony hack the most recent and then these

gaming hacks that happened yesterday on Christmas day. So what do you think about that?

PORGES: This is the year of the hack. 2014 is the year of the hack. Of course, Sony's hack kind of shed light on all the dirty laundry of this giant, giant company. You had these poor celebrities who had their personal photos hacked. You had mass of consumer hacks, so JPMorgan and Home Depot.

This was the year that everybody realized that their data is not safe. I think this is going to be sort of the wave -- you know, this is going to be the story that keeps giving in the future. We're going to see more and more hacks. We are going to see more and more companies really trying really, really hard to shut these down. And this arms race is not going anywhere any time soon.

BROWN: It's so scary. It really is. It's like a cat and mouse game. We try to protect ourselves and they figure out a more sophisticated way to get in.

All right, Aereo. I have covered this actually come with the Supreme Court, and we talked about this decision that Aereo attempt to provide online television didn't really play out so well.

PORGES: Sure. Aereo was a service that was going to stream broadcast television to you by using a series of physical antennas and DVRs in some borrow app location. The problem was that the Supreme Court just completely shut it down before the company could really get off the ground.

Now the company I think was hoping this would sort of be the beta max case of 2014, in which the Supreme Court would say this technology can exist, and it would kind of change the landscape. But instead, you can see that they said no. And who knows what might have come from technology. This is almost a chilling effect on things on a lot of new technology, make a lot of companies very skittish, to try new things that might run afoul of particular copyright laws and that's kind of a shame.

BROWN: Right. Don't feel left out, but we have to keep this short. (INAUDIBLE) cloud-based computing and security with credit cards, so really interesting stuff here, guys. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, if we had more time, Brett, we would get to you.

LARSON: That's all right. That's another tech miss for 2014.

BROWN: Yes, this is tech miss, there you go.

LARSON: Thank you.

BROWN: Seth Porges and Brett Larson, thank you very much.

Well ten years ago today, a massive tsunami slammed communities in the Indian Ocean. Can you believe it's been ten years? It killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced more than a million. Today survivors grief together honoring the dead, while looking back at ten years of efforts to rebuild. I'm talking to one of those survivors up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Can you believe it has been ten years since a massive wall of water crashed on to the shores of coastal communities across Southeast Asia? The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 came with little warning and no mercy. The sea briefly receded into itself, only to come rushing back. More than a quarter million people killed or missing and presumed dead. A decade later, the water mark of the region's grief is still visible on survivors' faces. They mourned, they rebuilt, and today, they remember. An entire region paying homage to the souls lost in the disaster of biblical proportions.

But while the losses are still painful, progress is evident. Just take a look here. This is a stretch of the beach ravaged by the tsunami. This is what that beach looks like today. Amazing. Very much restored as we see in this picture. Splintered wood, twisted metal and bodies littered the streets of one Indonesian town just after that tsunami.

And take a look here. This is a picture of those same streets and what they look like today.

For more now, I'm joined by tsunami survivor Dwayne Meadows.

Dwayne, thank you for coming on to talk about that. This is hard to believe it has been ten years. But I can imagine that experience left an indelible mark on you. What was it like when the tsunami hit?

DWAYNE MEADOWS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR: It was a horrible experience. I was in a bungalow and I was not looking out at the ocean and I heard screams from other folks when they realized how serious it was, and I turned towards the ocean. And I had been living in Hawaii, so I knew what a tsunami was, but I had no time to react. And I ended up in the water for many minutes and washed out to sea and ended up a half a mile away from where I started and a quarter mile out in the ocean with a lot of injuries all over my body.

BROWN: I can imagine you had so many thoughts running through your mind. Were you injured at all? Tell us about what happened to you in that experience.

MEADOWS: I had been twisting and spinning in the water, the first part of it, and getting hit by debris and wood and nails and all sorts of things.

BROWN: Wow.

MEADOWS: So by the time I made it to shore, I had about 130 injuries, literally from head to toe, but I had been protected. I had grabbed on to a plastic mannequin that I held on my chest as I was going through the water, and she took a couple of big hits from me. And so, I didn't have any injuries to my chest or my heart or my lungs, which really helped. BROWN: Amazing. Amazing that a plastic mannequin protected you. So

ten years later now, Dwayne, how has the healing process been? How are you doing?

MEADOWS: I'm doing well. It's a thing that comes and goes day by day. It really affects you in a lot of different ways, from the point where you don't really worry about the small stuff, but there are other things in your life that you feel like you really have to make a difference. Not only for yourself, but for those who didn't make it that day. And so that always comes in my head, especially this time of year.

BROWN: Yes, because sometimes out of the bad can come good. I'm curious to know what you've taken away from this experience, what perhaps the single biggest effect of the experience has had on your life.

MEADOWS: Well, you know, despite all the horror and the pain of that day, it was also a time when you see what you're able to do and more importantly what the community was able to do. There were people from 40 different countries where I was at in Thailand and people helped give first aid, create lists of survivors, find food and water, translate, and in the days and weeks after, people stayed around to help in ways that they could, and for years, there's a lot of great charity work that's gone on to help people rebuild. Children who lost their parents to have sort of big brothers, big sisters have a brighter future. So that part has been very rewarding. And I'm sure a lot of your viewers have been part of that response over the years.

BROWN: Have you been back to the region since?

MEADOWS: I have been back three or four times. I used some of my professional expertise as a marine biologist to help some of the environment recover, which is another aspect. And I also got involved in a couple of charities. And then the government of Thailand was gracious enough to actually bring us back for the anniversary in the first year to help us all heal, and that was a really wonderful experience.

BROWN: And we were looking at some pictures earlier, Dwayne, of how it's just changed so drastically over ten years. You look at it now, when the tsunami hit in this picture, and then you look at how it's, you know, gotten so much better and people are now playing in that same area where the tsunami hit. Tell us what your experience was like, how the region changed since the rebuilding.

MEADOWS: It is. The area where I was at was actually pretty small resort, mostly family-run with just a few bigger chain resorts, but it's expanded greatly in the following years. And the tourism business has come back well for that area. So that's really nice for the local ties that live there. In some ways, it's hard to even recognize what it used to look like.

BROWN: Yes, it's really just beautiful now. You look at these pictures.

Dwayne Meadows, thank you so much. We appreciate you coming on to share your story.

MEADOWS: Thanks for remembering us.

BROWN: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, 2014 was certainly a good year for the economy. Even today as we near the end of 2014, the Dow continues to hover just above 18,000. And other markets are making highs of their own.

CNN's Alison Kosik joins me now to talk more about this. It really was a great year, especially for investors.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It really was. And if you're invested in the market, here's how you most likely are doing, or you can track how you're doing.

The Dow is up 8.8 percent for the year. The S&P 500 up 12.6 percent for the year. The S&P 500 is most likely what your investments track, if you have a 401(k), or you have an investment fund. The S&P 500 is actually a better, broader measure of how the stock market is doing.

So everybody wants to know what's going to happen in 2015. What's going to move the market higher? Strong earnings from companies. We want companies to do well. They're doing well now. And as they're doing well, we want them to hire more.

Also, we want the economy to remain strong. We did see definitely the economy gaining momentum, especially in the third quarter. Over the summer, GDP grew at a five percent rate of growth. That was unexpected. That was certainly impressive. The reality is it's probably not going to be the kind of growth we see in the fourth quarter.

So, as we turn the corner to 2015, the reality is volatility will pick up because all is not perfect.

BROWN: Right. Exactly, of course.

KOSIK: You still have many people out of work who either want to work full time who are working part time and who need jobs. Wages still aren't where they need to be. And their health care costs are certainly higher. So there are a lot of pressures on Americans right now. We are seeing lots of improvement in the U.S. economy. But still there's a ways to go.

BROWN: Exactly. I'm just going to tell you, there are people say at home right now listening, saying wait, it's not been so great for me.

KOSIK: Right and exactly. And it really it then depend on your own situation. I mean, I ask people all the time, do you feel like the economy is doing well. And many people say they don't. A lot of that really does have to do with wages. Our wages really aren't going up. They're not -- they are barely keeping up with inflation. They have risen a little bit, but it was certainly not enough. Also those health care costs are a reality. I mean, a lot of people's

deductibles have shot up with Obamacare. That takes a hit on your budget. Next year, also, we are going to have to contend with the fed. The fed is looking at tightening rates. You could see your mortgage going up as well.

BROWN: All right, we will have to expect the 2015.

Alison Kosik, thanks very much.

So planning to head to Times Square to see the ball drop? Bring some extra layers. Most of the country is going to be hit by another one of those polar plunges. Remember that, the polar plunge?

Here's meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

JENNIFER GRAY, METEOROLOGIST: Pamela, the focus the last couple of days has been around the Rockies. We've seen a lot of snow. But this storm system is going to push to the east throughout the weekend. It is going to bring rain to the south and even the eastern seaboard by Sunday.

So additional snowfall as this thing pushes eastward. We are talking three to five inches right outside of Minneapolis. We are off to talking about additional snowfall in portions of Colorado. Then it will be wrapping up and pushing rain into portions of the south, one to three inches for areas in Alabama, Mississippi, right along the gulf coast. We could see isolated amounts, up to five inches.

And then right around Kentucky, Tennessee, even portions of Ohio, we could see about an inch. The northeast is going to see less than an inch most likely. So if you are heading out doing some shopping, D.C., today and tomorrow are your days to do it. By Sunday, the clouds return and even some rain. St. Louis is going to be getting the showers on Saturday. But then by Sunday, looking better with temperatures around 40 degrees.

Now, just in time for New Year's Eve, we're going to see much of the country dip way down. That cold front moving east and it is going to bring temperatures well below normal. We are talking 20 to 30 degrees below average for portions of the Rockies, the northern plains and even the Texas panhandle. And then 10 to 20 degrees below average for much of the country, the west, the south and even on into the east.

Thirty to 40-degree range is what we're thinking on New Year's Eve for the areas in light blue, the green, 40 to 50 degrees. But look at the northern plains and the upper Midwest, 10 to 20 degrees to ring in the New Year. It is going to be very cold.

So here to sneak peak at your temperatures, Monday and Tuesday, single digits in Rapid City, four and six degrees. Minneapolis, you barely warm up into the teens by Wednesday. New York City, Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures right around freezing for your high temperatures -- Pamela.

BROWN: That's going to be a rude awakening for a lot of people. Jennifer Gray, thank you so much.

Well, he's not the only one. That's what Michael Sam, the first openly gay man to play in the NFL, is saying. He tells Oprah Winfrey a few players have actually reached out to him saying that they wish they had the courage to come out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TV PERSONALITY: Have other gay players in the NFL called you or contacted you?

MICHAEL SAM, NFL PLAYER: Very few reached out to me.

WINFREY: Very few meaning one, two, three, five?

SAM: Very few reached out to me and pretty much just told me the gratitude and how they were thankful that I had the courage, you know, to -- they wish they had the courage to come out.

WINFREY: Gay men in the NFL --

SAM: Gay men in the NFL.

WINFREY: Reached out to you and called you.

SAM: Reached out to me, yes, and just showed the respect and show that -- admired my courage. And it was very good.

WINFREY: And you're using the pleural, men, not man.

SAM: Men. There's a lot of us out there.

WINFREY: Yes.

SAM: I'm not the only one. I'm just the only one who's open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Sam was drafted this year by the St. Louis Rams but was cut after the preseason and he is currently a free agent.

Coming up right here in NEWSROOM, "the Interview" has made major headlines but isn't a money-maker for the studios. You might be surprise. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, some are called by what they say was their patriotic duty. And some people came because going to the movies is just what they do on Christmas day. Audiences across the country flocked to see "the Interview" yesterday reportedly bringing in a million dollars for Sony at the box office. Right now, it is the top rental (ph) for both You Tube and Google play.

CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter has all the details.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: Yes, now that "the Interview" is out, the big question is how many people are actually paying money to see it? And today, we're getting the answers to that. It premiered in about 331 theaters on Christmas day in the United States and made a bit more than $1 million at the box office. That's according to Sony, which put out a statement on Friday morning celebrating the news.

Here's part of what it said. The audience reaction was fantastic. The limited release in under 10 percent amount the theaters originally planned featured numerous sellouts and a first-day gross over $1 million.

We don't know how many people decided to pay six bucks and watch it online. And that really was a landmark moment. Never before in the United States have we seen a big, broad comedy like "the Interview" come out on the Internet at the same time it came out in movie theaters.

Big theater chains have resisting that idea. They have been objecting to the idea of releasing movies online and then in theaters at the same time. Their concern, it will hurt their profits at the theater.

But Sony had little choice because the big theaters change that the time to run "the Interview" after the threats from hackers last week. That's why it ended up in small independently owned movie theaters, about 300 of those. Plus, You Tube and Google play and Microsoft's x- box's video store this week.

So Sony is not releasing the rental data. But it is possible they will make many millions of dollars that way as well, through rentals of the movie online.

One thing is clear. This movie got a whole lot more attention than it otherwise would have. North Korea, whoever the hackers are, can't possibly be happy about that. And there are talks for other distribution options in the future as well. Sony's not stopping with these theaters and these online options. They're also in talks with Netflix about possibly putting the movie on that platform in the future. That way subscribers to Netflix all across the country and maybe around the world could watch the movie as a part of their bundle of movies. But that's for the New Year. Right now, the film is on You Tube and online and in theaters. And we will see over time how well this idea of movie rentals on the Internet actually fairs.

Back to you.

BROWN: Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

And that does it for me. Thank you so much being here with us on this Friday. Happy New Year, everyone.

"The LEAD" with Dana Bash starts right now.

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