Down Round

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Online Marketplaces: 2 podcast mics, poor condition, free to a good home (PREVIEW) Nov 09, 2023

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One of the very first things people realised they could do online was sell their crap. Since that realisation, e-commerce has gotten a little more advanced. But online marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Gumtree still kick along, promising you the opportunity to find great deals as long as you're willing to drive 40 minutes to some guys house.

We go through a whirlwind tour of the online marketplace, how it got to where it is, and the forces making them less essential.

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The SBF Trial: Confessions of a spreadsheet criminal Nov 07, 2023

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It's official: Sam Bankman-Fried is GUILTY of committing fraud while running his doomed crypto empire at FTX. The crazy-haired freak took down the credibility of the whole sector while doing it.

The trial -- particularly the testimony of Sam's fellow execs at FTX and Alameda -- turned up all sorts of juicy little details. In this ep, we go through them and reminisce on the crypto exchange that was.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twitter/X: Checking in on the world's best website (PREVIEW) Nov 02, 2023

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This is a preview of a premium episode. To become a member and get access, go here.

It's been a minute since we've checked in on Twitter/X, which has become a playground for whatever Elon Musk thinks is cool at any given moment and yet still has many millions of users. But it certainly hasn't collapsed as some predicted.

That said, the situation doesn't look great. The ads haven't come back, users seem to be slipping away, investors are writing down their stake – all while the Israel/Palestine conflict really kicks the tyres of Twitter as an information platform. We dig in.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Snitch Tech: You haven't been talking to the cops have ya mate? Oct 31, 2023

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Snitch Tech.

One of the weirdest trends in tech over the last decade has been the spread of surveillance tech for consumers. Everything from Ring doorbells from Amazon to facial recognition AI and family location tracking software has made it a breeze to film, track and trace your fellow citizens.

But it goes deeper. Social networks for ratting out your neighbour. Weird Nextdoor threads. Number plate recognition software for landlords. We're coining it SNITCH TECH, and we're talking about it today.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nintendo: Oh yeah, that Italian fella (PREVIEW) Oct 26, 2023

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This is a preview of a premium episode. To become a member of Down Round Premium, head here.

Nintendo has made some of the most popular consumer products of all time, and also invented Mario. Pretty great run! But it's also an interesting business, with a relatively unique approach within the gaming industry and beyond.

As the rumoured announcement of the Switch 2 draws ever nearer, we chat about the House of Mario and what makes it tick.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

iPad: The optimal device for concert photography Oct 24, 2023

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The first iPad was released over a decade ago and pitched as a bold new frontier for consumer computing. It helped kill the netbook and spawned generations of copycat tablets from Android manufacturers and Microsoft.

But it hasn't really played out all that well. In fact – despite selling a healthy number of them – the iPad sometimes seems like a mostly forgotten product range, with confusing options and not much by way of innovation.

What gives? Are tablets in general a dead end? We discuss.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OpenAI: I'm sorry, I can't help with that request Oct 19, 2023

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Wow! We're checking in on OpenAI again. Reporting over the weekend confirmed that the company is on track to book over $1 billion of revenue this year – suggesting this whole AI thing might have an actual consumer base. Meanwhile, the company released a handful of new features for ChatGPT which demonstrate just how hard they're going for it. We discuss.

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SpaceX: Two idiots go to Mars Oct 17, 2023

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Elon Musk may be a complete weirdo these days, but SpaceX is still a pretty cool company. Started to assist mankind in its journey to Mars, it has been the leading company in the world of private spaceflight, and the undisputed king of satellite tech.

In this ep we talk about SpaceX, Starlink, the various forces which made it successful, and speculate on what jobs we will have on Mars.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

YouTube: Please, hit that like and subscribe Oct 10, 2023

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YouTube is indisputably the king of online video, and has been virtually since it launched in 2005. It's part of the infrastructure of the internet, and has imprinted itself on the culture through a combo of its algorithmic recommendations engine and sheer scale. But in the age of TikTok, can YouTube be toppled?

In this episode, we talk through YouTube's history, key points in its development, and what its future might look like. Also, sadly, YouTubers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Audio & Video Production: Boops, bleeps, etc (PREVIEW) Oct 05, 2023

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This is a preview of a premium episode. To subscribe and get an extra episode every week, go here.

These days it seems just about everyone can make professional looking video. Thanks to the video production tools available to the average user of TikTok, Zoomers are better at editing video than millennials ever were. It leaves the question: what are the classic pro video platforms like Avid, Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut Pro doing?

At the same time, music production seems like a harder problem to make simple for the masses. In this ep, we dive into the current situation around audio and video production.

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Bill Gates tries to install Movie Maker – Internal Tech Emails

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