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AI Devices: Hitting the discotheque in your Facebook Ray-Bans Oct 04, 2023

Show notes

Among the numerous announcements made at this year's Meta Connect was a new generation of its smart glasses, developed with Ray-Bans. Aside from the usual stuff about capturing photos and listening to audio, Mark Zuckerberg casually dropped that he thinks they will soon be an interface into conversational AI.

It comes as there are rumours of other companies considering AI devices, like OpenAI working with former Apple design boss Jony Ive. In this ep, we dive in.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digital identity: Show us yer licence, guvna (PREVIEW) Sep 28, 2023

Show notes

Digital identity references a simple idea: how much a computer system knows about you. But, just like everything else, it's a bit weird these days. People have increasingly fractious online identities, even as the platforms we use and our own governments collect more and more data about us.

This episode, we discuss changes in digital identity, and Raph gets to go off about his deep and unabiding love of the surveillance state.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Phone Cameras: But like... what is a photo, man? Sep 26, 2023

Show notes

The smartphone camera arms race seems to be a little less intense these days, but the quality of a phone camera remains one of the major reasons people choose to upgrade – especially when most iPhone and Android devices have been basically the same black glass rectangle for a decade now.

But there's only so much circuitry and lens technology you can cram into a phone. So much of the development has been software level, with machine learning and AI doing heavy algorithmic work to make your photos pop. This ranges from automatic red eye removal and saturation adjustment all the way up to faked photos of the moon.

So we ask the bold question: where does smartphone photography go from here? And does it really matter if the photos your phone is taking don't really reflect reality?

Links

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flexport: Container go on ship (PREVIEW) Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

If you pay any attention to tech or VC Twitter, Flexport will have crossed your radar. A freight forwarding business which wants to do for supply chains what Stripe did for payments, Flexport (and its founder Ryan Petersen) has become one of the most hyped startups among a certain flavour of tech poster. Petersen also became a well-known talking head during the COVID supply chain crisis.

The company is in the news because Petersen sacked his successor, former Amazon logistics boss Dave Clarke, and has returned to the helm amid a revenue collapse. In this ep, we talk about Flexport, logistics, and what the heck's going on.

Links

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Unity: How to piss off developers with one simple trick Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

Unity is one of the most popular game engines in the world, powering everything from a solid chunk of the mobile gaming universe to bigger console and PC games. Last week, it managed to annoy basically all of its customers by announcing a new, highly extractive pricing model.

In this episode, we dive into what a game engine does, the rise of Unity, and why making everyone who uses your product homicidally angry is the bold marketing move of 2023.

Links

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Social Audio: Kicked out of the Clubhouse (PREVIEW) Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode every week, go here.

This week brought news that Clubhouse, the social audio streaming platform endlessly hyped during the early pandemic, has pivoted away from its original purpose and is now trying to become sort of a group chat for audio instead.

It's as good a time as any to talk about social audio, the way people share audio online, and why it's such a tough nut to crack.

Links

Clubhouse reinvents itself as an audio messaging app - The Verge

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wikipedia: Leave your citations at the door (feat. Richard Cooke) Sep 13, 2023

Show notes

Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites on earth, and an example of a quasi-utopian internet project which has kind of worked out in the end – and managed to stick around too. Despite some evident problems, it all works surprisingly well.

To help us understand Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation which manages it – and the weird world of the editors who keep it functional – we're joined by author Richard Cooke, who is currently writing a book about it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Canva: Graphic designers, your terrible reign is over (PREVIEW) Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode a week, go here.

Canva is one of Australia's most successful tech companies. It has proven pretty disruptive to the global design landscape, with its template-based offering making it relatively easy for even novices with zero taste to make stuff that looks pretty good.

In this ep, we talk about Canva's effect on design, and where it might go next to justify its sky-high valuation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MrBeast: Staring into the YouTube abyss (feat. Max Read) Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

MrBeast is the most popular individual YouTuber, with over 180 million subscribers. He makes a lot of sleekly produced videos where he gives away money, cars, islands and life-altering surgeries. To some, he is history's greatest philanthropist. To others, he's deeply evil in a way that is hard to articulate. Which side of the divide you fall on is mostly a generational thing.

To help us understand the man, the business and the phenomenon that is MrBeast, we're joined by writer Max Read, who formerly edited Gawker and has written for New York Magazine, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. (And possibly other New York related publications.) Max recently authored a feature article for the NYT on MrBeast, making him well-placed to take us on this dark odyssey into the heart of YouTube.

Max also writes a newsletter called Read Max, which you should subscribe to.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's up with the anti-ageing vampire billionaire? (PREVIEW) Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

This is a preview of a premium episode. To sign up for Down Round Premium and get an extra episode a week, go here.

A fun one for you this week. Over the past few weeks, we've been blessed with many news stories about Bryan Johnson, the tech billionaire who is putting his considerable wealth towards becoming functionally immortal through a weird diet, militant sleep schedule, and injecting himself with his son's blood.

Pretty neat! On this episode, we discuss Johnson's quest, and where it fits in with recent Silicon Valley fixation on biotech and the physical sciences.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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