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Thu. 01/19 – Instagram Wants You To Take A Break Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Is Genesis finally on the verge of bankruptcy? Instagram wants you to take a break… from Instagram… and they’re even giving you tools to do so. Frowny-face for Amazon for shutting down the AmazonSmile program. Wikipedia gets a big redesign. Some numbers on where the investor dollars are going right now, and is San Francisco back, baby? Maybe cause I’m coming to visit.

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Links:

Genesis creditors negotiating prepackaged bankruptcy: Sources (The Block)
Crypto Media Outlet CoinDesk Taps Bankers for Potential Sale (WSJ)
Instagram’s new ‘Quiet Mode’ helps you take a break from the app (TechCrunch)
Amazon to close charitable program AmazonSmile (The Hill)
Wikipedia gets its first makeover in over a decade… and it’s fairly subtle (TechCrunch)
Apple to Expand Smart-Home Lineup, Taking On Amazon and Google (Bloomberg)
Web 3 Startup Funding Q4 Drop (Crunchbase)
New AngelList Data Shows Startup Fundraising Pain in Second Half of 2022 (Newcomer)
It looks like people are actually moving back to San Francisco (really) (Vox)
Tweet on LA startup investment numbers (@emollick)

Wed. 01/18 – The HomePod Is Back Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

The original HomePod is basically back, even though it’s not the original cause it’s been updated. Apple’s AR/VR plans continue to be maddeningly confusing, at least to me. Microsoft has announced huge layoffs. Does even the AI revolution require human moderators working in boiler-room like conditions? And I guess we have all the specs for those new Galaxy phones about to be announced.

Links:

Tue. 01/17 – New Mac Tuesday Jan 17, 2023

Show notes

New Macs and New M2 chips from Santa Tim this morning. Microsoft has made its Azure OpenAI Service generally available. But will lawsuits slow down the AI revolution? Is Google about to reveal its own AirTag-like product? And the law of if it’s too good to be true, it probably is, continues to hold, at least when it comes to hard drives for sale on Amazon.

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Links:

Apple Announces New MacBook Pros With M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips, Up to 96GB RAM, 8K HDMI, Wi-Fi 6E, and More (MacRumors)
Apple Unveils M2 Pro and M2 Max Chips With 20% Faster CPU and More (MacRumors)
Microsoft to Add ChatGPT to Azure Cloud Services ‘Soon’ (Bloomberg)
Microsoft Plans to Build OpenAI Capabilities Into All Products (WSJ)
Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content (The Verge)
AI art tools Stable Diffusion and Midjourney targeted with copyright lawsuit (The Verge)
Google reportedly working on AirTag-like location trackers (The Verge)
Why the Heck Is Amazon Selling These Fake 16 Terabyte Portable SSD Drives? (ReviewGeek)

(TWTR SPC) The Big AI Discussion Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

Our big AI discussion with @ReamBraden and @swyx.

Shawn just posted this new essay drawing on what we discussed here:

Every Google vs OpenAI Argument, Dissected

Fri. 01/13 – Is The Government Crackdown On Crypto Starting? Jan 13, 2023

Show notes

The SEC just officially labeled two crypto lending programs as unregistered securities? Is the regulatory tsunami beginning? Did Tim Cook actually ask Apple to cut his pay? Did the nascent industry of carbon capture just take its first steps? And in the longreads, I go in depth to explain that weird OpenAI/Microsoft deal. It’s complicated.

Links:

SEC charges Gemini and Genesis with unregistered securities offering (The Block)
Apple’s Tim Cook Takes Rare CEO Pay Cut After Pushback (Bloomberg)
Climate Startup Removes Carbon From Open Air in Industry First (WSJ)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Microsoft + OpenAI: Inside Tech’s Hottest Romance (The Information)
Is Microsoft about to get the deal of the century? Or is Sam Altman unloading OpenAI at just the right time? (Gary Marcus)
Robert Tinney’s Visions Of The Future (DocPop)
Dungeons & Dragons content creators are fighting to protect their livelihoods (TechCrunch)

Thu. 01/12 – Touchscreen Macs? Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

Is Apple finally ready to bring touchscreens to Macs? Sam Bankman Fried has a Substack. Apple Maps courts businesses. Is Twitter going to auction off user handles? And what tech publication that I quote from all the time has been using AI to write entire articles for months now?

Links:

Apple Is Working on Adding Touch Screens to Macs in Major Turnabout (Bloomberg)
Sam Bankman-Fried sticks to his script (Axios)
Apple Maps’ business listings are about to get more detailed with launch of ‘Apple Business Connect’ (TechCrunch)
Twitter Said to Consider Selling User Names to Boost Revenue (NYTimes)
Carta lays off 10% as CTO lawsuit looms (TechCrunch)
CNET IS QUIETLY PUBLISHING ENTIRE ARTICLES GENERATED BY AI (The Byte/Futurism)
OpenAI begins piloting ChatGPT Professional, a premium version of its viral chatbot (TechCrunch)

Wed. 01/11 – Maybe Software Needs To Eat The Airline Industry Jan 11, 2023

Show notes

Yet another software snafu with the airlines this morning. Apple’s about to do its own screens, its own modems, what is left? Twitter makes a change that they’ve tried to make several times before. Why all the interesting raises are in AI right now. And what to expect from the Surface Duo 3.

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Links:

U.S. air travel rumbles back to life after FAA computer outage (Reuters)
Apple to Begin Making In-House Screens in 2024 in Shift Away From Samsung (Bloomberg)
Twitter defaults to a For You page now, just like TikTok (The Verge)
DeepL, the AI-based language translator, raises over $100M at a $1B+ valuation (TechCrunch)
Microsoft scraps plans for dual-screen Surface Duo 3, pivots to new foldable screen design (Windows Central)
Samsung confirms February 1st Unpacked, its first in-person event in three years (The Verge)

Tickets to the comedy show at SF Sketchfest

Tue. 01/10 – Now We Have VALL-E To Take Over My Podcast Voice Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

Well, now there’s VALL-E, a text to speech technology that could fully replace me as this podcast narrator. It looks like Microsoft wants to do everything just short of buying OpenAI entirely. More layoffs at Coinbase. Why the whole 5G interfering with airplanes thing still isn’t resolved. And not everything that says it’s ChatGPT, is really ChatGPT.

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Links:

Microsoft’s new AI can simulate anyone’s voice with 3 seconds of audio (ArsTechnica)
Microsoft eyes $10 billion bet on ChatGPT (Semafor)
Buy with Prime, which brings Prime to third-party sites, officially launches in U.S. on Jan. 31 (TechCrunch)
Coinbase to slash 20% of workforce in second major round of job cuts (CNBC)
FAA giving airlines another year to fix altimeters that can’t handle 5G signals (Ars Technica)
Sketchy ChatGPT App Soars Up App Store Charts, Charges $7.99 Weekly Subscription (MacRumors)

YouTube Experiment 1

YouTube Experiment 2

Mon. 01/09 – Gurman Tells Us When Apple’s “Reality Pro” Will Be Announced. Jan 09, 2023

Show notes

Mark Gurman tells us when Apple’s “Reality Pro” headset will be announced, made available to developers, and made available to consumers. Valve’s Steam gaming platform is breaking records. John Deere will let you repair your hundred-thousand-dollar smart tractor. A literal ThinkPad for smartphones. And why one big buzzword was largely missing from CES this year.

Sponsors:

Bombas.com/techmeme, code techmeme at checkout
Zocdoc.com/techmeme

Links:

Apple Will Talk Up Its Mixed-Reality Headset in 2023 But Not Much Else (Bloomberg)
Steam hits 10 million concurrent in-game players in record-breaking weekend (The Verge)
Deere & Co. will allow farmers to repair their own equipment (Reuters)
Insurer Beazley launches first catastrophe bond for cyber threats (FT)
The Lenovo ThinkPhone by Motorola is a ThinkPad owner’s dream (The Verge)
Where was 5G at CES? (The Verge)

Fri. 01/06 – CES Wrapup Part 2 Jan 06, 2023

Show notes

OpenAI is raising more money. Apple’s headset launch might be delayed to the summer. But no worries, cause HTC unveiled their 099 Vive XR Elite headset to beat them to the punch. And that leads us into the CES wrapup for day two, including, the most interesting two laptops I’ve seen in a very long time. A true smarthome solution if you care about power. And the new electric trucks that have turned my head.

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