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Wed. 10/12 – Meta’s VR Event; Microsoft’s Surface Event Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

Only two big stories really. We break down yesterday’s Meta VR event, including the new high end Quest Pro. But did Zuck show us anything that will get anyone excited about the Metaverse yet? And Microsoft’s Surface event had a lot of Surface refreshes, but was the big news actually their integration of DALL-E 2 with a new Designer app? The productivity space is hot…

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TED Tech Podcast

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The Meta Quest Pro costs $1,499 and ships October 25th (The Verge)
What happened to the virtual reality gaming revolution? (Ars Technica)
It’s painful how hellbent Mark Zuckerberg is on convincing us that VR is a thing (TechCrunch)
Zuckerberg’s $1,499 Headsets Won’t Help Meta (Bloomberg)
Surface Pro 9 lets you pick between Intel or Arm 5G and new color options (The Verge)
Microsoft's (barely) refreshed Surface Laptop 5 starts at $1,000 (Engadget)
Microsoft’s Surface Studio 2 Plus ships with an RTX 3060 for $4,299 (The Verge)
Microsoft brings DALL-E 2 to the masses with Designer and Image Creator (TechCrunch)
Microsoft’s Adaptive Accessories finally have a release date (The Verge)

Tue. 10/11 – Odds And Sods Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

A whole bunch of things, including a major US bank getting into crypto custody, paying for Google cloud with crypto, Chromebooks made for gaming, the lack of anyone in the current slate of virtual worlds, the return of the cable bundle example 100, and did you know your Apple AirTags only last a year?

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Fri. 10/07 – What Is It With These Dang Bridges? Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

There’s another huge crypto hack and I’ll give you two guesses as to what folks think the culprit is. The Twitter/Elon trial is officially paused. Meta can’t get its own developers to use their metaverse products. Maybe my dream of Death Star style anklebots is over. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Links:

Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto hack (Reuters)
The Elon Musk vs. Twitter trial is on hold until October 28th (The Verge)
Meta’s flagship metaverse app is too buggy and employees are barely using it, says exec in charge (The Verge)
Amazon Abandons Home Delivery Robot Tests in Latest Cost Cuts (Bloomberg)
Samsung Details GDDR7 and 1,000-Layer V-NAND Plans (Tom's Hardware)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Even After $100 Billion, Self-Driving Cars Are Going Nowhere (Bloomberg)
The Illustrated Stable Diffusion (Jay Alammar)
Swiss Dropout Worth $14 Billion Moves Startup Away From Porn (Bloomberg)
The Next Big Battle Between Google and Apple Is for the Soul of Your Car (WSJ)
How To Download All of Wikipedia onto a USB Flash Drive in 2022 (Planet of the Paul)
A Canticle for Leibowitz (Wikipedia)

Thu. 10/06 – The Made By Google Event Oct 06, 2022

Show notes

All the headlines from the Made By Google event. Elon sure wants to avoid being deposed. Why a guilty verdict for Uber’s former Chief Security Officer could have broader ramifications in the tech world. And the new text to video AI systems, this time, from Google.

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Google unveils Pixel 7 Pro with Tensor G2 processor, 5x telephoto, starts at $899 (9to5Google)
Google gets serious about wearables with the Pixel Watch (TechCrunch)
Elon Musk’s deposition delayed as he wrangles with Twitter over deal (Financial Times)
Former Uber Security Chief Found Guilty of Hiding Hack From Authorities (NYTimes)
Former Uber security chief convicted of covering up 2016 data breach (Washington Post)
Google answers Meta’s video-generating AI with its own, dubbed Imagen Video (TechCrunch)

Wed. 10/05 – Elon Wants Twitter Now. We Think. Who KNOWS ANYMORE!!?? Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

Yes, we’ll get into the whole Twitter/Elon thing. Seems he wants the original deal again… or does he? Tesla is removing more sensors from their cars. The hugely problematic launch of Overwatch 2. And the tech angle to that whole Chess cheating scandal.

Links:

Musk Revives $44 Billion Twitter Bid, Aiming to Avoid Trial (Bloomberg)
Elon Musk says Twitter will eventually be part of ‘X, the everything app’ (MarketWatch)
Musk offers to proceed with Twitter deal (Axios)
Lawyers Lose Out on Millions in Twitter-Musk Legal Fees (Bloomberg)
Tesla is now building Model 3 and Model Y vehicles without ultrasonic sensors (TechCrunch)
DDoS attack on 'Overwatch 2' servers prevents fans from playing the game on launch day (Engadget)
Chess Investigation Finds That U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times (WSJ)

Tue. 10/04 – The End Of Lightning Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

The EU has made USB-C the charging port law of the land. Xiaomi’s new flagship smartphone with a 200MP camera. New Google Nest things. Is YouTube trying new ways to get you to pay up for Premium. And the big new robotics push in the world of… checks notes… retail pharmacy.

Links:

Mon. 10/03 – Kim Kardashian In Crypto Trouble Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

Kim Kardashian has settled with the SEC over crypto promotion on social media. I continue to Wonder if, aside from TikTok, the biggest threat to Zuckerberg’s metaverse plans is actually Sony. The Supreme Court is gonna hear cases that could pierce the veil of Section 230. And the other social media law from Texas that Silicon Valley is fighting tooth and nail.

Links:

Kim Kardashian pays over $1 million to settle SEC charges linked to a crypto promo on her Instagram (CNBC)
Celsius Network founder withdrew $10mn ahead of bankruptcy (FT)
Sony Betting Big on Next VR Headset With Increased Production Plan (Bloomberg)
Social Media Company Liability Draws Supreme Court Scrutiny (Bloomberg)
Texas Social-Media Law on Web Censorship Upheld by Federal Appeals Court (Bloomberg)
Tech companies are gaming out responses to the Texas social media law (Washington Post)

(TWTR SPC) NFT Struggles, Google Stadia And New Kindles Oct 01, 2022

Show notes

NFT Struggles, Google Stadia And New Kindles with @aidanfitzryan and @ArtSabintsev

Fri. 09/30 – Google Shutters Stadia Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Google is abandoning a major project, maybe it’s biggest cancellation ever. More cutbacks at Meta. Though one tech company is gonna test the IPO waters soon. Be a fly on the wall as Elon talks to everyone in Silicon Valley about maybe buying Twitter. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

Google is shutting down Stadia (The Verge)
Meta to Cut Headcount for First Time, Slash Budgets Across Teams (Bloomberg)
TripActions reportedly files to go public at $12 billion valuation (TechCrunch)
Jack Dorsey tried to get Elon Musk on Twitter’s board but directors were too ‘risk averse,’ texts reveal (CNBC)
Elon Musk’s Text Exchanges Show Twitter Deal Going Off The Rails (Big Technology)
How Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Parag Agrawal cratered the Twitter deal, in texts (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Google is trying to reinvent search — by being more than a search engine (The Verge)
Twitter Is in This Mess Because Jack Dorsey Was Too Busy Being a Bitcoin Influencer (Bloomberg)
Here's Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) (SlashFilm)
Someone is pretending to be me. (Connor Tumbleson)

Thu. 09/29 – A Kindle You Can Write On Sep 29, 2022

Show notes

Meta takes down an app that tried to strip out the cruft from Instagram (but also the ads). Bunch of new Maps features from Google. All the headlines from yesterday’s Amazon event, including a Kindle you can write on. And text to image generators are cool. But you know what’s really cool, text to video generators.

Sponsors:

Titan.com/ride

Links:

The OG App promised an ad-free Instagram feed then got pulled from App Store (TechCrunch)
The 11 biggest announcements at Amazon’s hardware launch event (The Verge)
Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is an E Ink tablet for reading and writing (The Verge)
Here are all of the new features and updates coming to Google Maps (TechCrunch)
SWIFT Partners With Crypto Data Provider Chainlink on Cross-Chain Protocol in TradFi Play (CoinDesk)
Meta’s new text-to-video AI generator is like DALL-E for video (The Verge)

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