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Fri. 11/12 – MoviePass Is Coming Back Nov 12, 2021

Show notes

Beware a watering hole, zero day attack that affected macOS. Spotify is getting into the audiobook game. MoviePass looks like it might be coming back from the dead, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Google Caught Hackers Using a Mac Zero-Day Against Hong Kong Users (Vice/Motherboard)
Amazon will let you easily share clips from its Prime Video content (The Verge)
Spotify expands into audiobooks with acquisition of Findaway (TechCrunch)
MoviePass cofounder Stacy Spikes has bought the company back and is planning a relaunch (Insider)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

The 10,000 Faces That Launched an NFT Revolution (Wired)
The Metaverse and (near-)infinite economic growth (Noahpinion)
Chip Shortage Creates New Power Players (NYTimes)
The Craziest Sports Story of 2021 Is FC Sheriff (Futbol With Grant Wahl)

Thu. 11/11 – Do Gamers Not Like Crypto? Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Discord floats the idea of incorporating crypto, but backs down after a vicious backlash. Apple wants to manage IT for small and medium businesses. YouTube is starting to hide the dislike option. Disney+ growth is suddenly anemic. And say hello to an NFT band. Like, literally, a Bored Ape Band.

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Discord pushes pause on exploring crypto and NFTs amidst user backlash (TechCrunch)
Apple launches Apple Business Essentials: Device management, storage, onsite repairs, and more for one monthly price (9to5Mac)
US sues Uber over 'wait time' fees for disabled passengers (Protocol)
YouTube gives dislikes the thumbs-down, hides public counts (The Verge)
Disney+ Subscriber Growth Slows, Company Misses Wall Street Expectations (The Hollywood Reporter)
The World’s Largest Record Company Is Creating an NFT Super Group (Bloomberg)

Wed. 11/10 – Big Tech Smacked Down In Court Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

Apple and Alphabet suffer setbacks in court. More hardware moves in the great Metaverse realignment of the tech landscape. Unity buys Weta Digital. No word on if Andy Serkis is part of the package. And Twitter Blue is finally live. A reminder of what that actually is.

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Tue. 11/09 – Robinhood Hacked By Unknown Bandits Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

Robinhood has been compromised by some true brigands. If you’ve got a Robinhood account, double down on being wary of phishing attacks. Netflix takes a page out of the TikTok playbook. And whole bunch of announces about new DRAM chips, new AMD chips, new custom voicebot toolkits from Nvidia, and Niantic doesn’t want to get left behind in the Metaverse race it arguably helped set off.

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Robinhood says millions of customer names and email addresses taken in data breach (TechCrunch)
US seizes $6 million in ransom payments and charges Ukrainian over major cyberattack (CNN)
Netflix to Roll Out TikTok-Like Short Clip Feature Aimed at Kids (Bloomberg)
Samsung’s new LPDDR5X DRAM is 1.3x faster and consumes 20% less power than LPDDR5 DRAM (XDA Developers)
AMD lands Meta as customer and takes on Nvidia, sending shares up 11% (Reuters)
Nvidia’s Riva Custom Voice lets companies create custom voices powered by AI (VentureBeat)
Niantic launches platform to build ‘real-world metaverse’ apps (The Verge)

Mon. 11/08 – McAfee To Go Private Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

McAfee is taken private. The recently passed Infrastructure Bill complicates the tax picture for crypto. Also, playing NFT games could seriously complicate your tax bill. The latest installment of Today In Elon Musk, and since we’re hitting old features today, let’s check in with how Masa Son is doing.

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McAfee to Be Taken Private in $14 Billion Deal Including Debt (Bloomberg)
House Sends Infrastructure Bill With Crypto Tax Provision to US President (CoinDesk)
NFT games are fun. Filing taxes afterward is a nightmare. (Protocol)
Elon Musk’s Twitter Poll Results Favor Tesla Stock Sale (WSJ)
A Drone Tried to Disrupt the Power Grid. It Won't Be the Last (Wired)
SoftBank Vision Fund Posts a Record Loss on Coupang’s Plunge (Bloomberg)

(TWTR SPC) Where's The Money In The #CreatorEconomy? Nov 06, 2021

Show notes

Poking some holes in the Metaverse hype and also examining the financial realities of the Creator Economy.

Simon Owen's Media Newsletter

Zealous.app

The Charlie Warzel leaving substack essay we discuss.

Fri. 11/05 – Meta To Open Metaverse Retail Stores? Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

Is Meta going to open actual physical retail stores to try to sell folks on the promise of the Metaverse? More tangible signs Apple’s silicon is leaving everyone, but especially Intel in the dust. The new Mavic 3 drone from DJI. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Links:

To Build the Metaverse, Meta First Wants to Build Stores (NYTimes)
Apple’s Road Map for Mac Chips Shows Likely Advantage Over Intel (The Information)
DJI Launches New Mavic 3 Drone With Longer Flight Time, Improved Cameras and New Safety Features (MacRumors)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Hackers are stealing data today so quantum computers can crack it in a decade (TechnologyReview.com)
The Booming Underground Market for Bots That Steal Your 2FA Codes (Motherboard)
Farewell Offshoring, Outsourcing. Pandemic Rewrites CEO Playbook. (WSJ)
Silicon Valley wants to power the U.S. war machine (Fast Company)
The Metaverse Takes Manhattan (NYTimes)

Thu. 11/04 – Instagram Can Post To Twitter Again Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

Instagram is playing nice with Twitter all of the sudden. But Meta has some new creator tools that try once again to shiv the App Stores. That South Korean law is actively cracking open the App Stores in that country. Google might be back in the defense contract business. And why it MIGHT be worth paying $30 for a keyboard with only 3 keys.

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Wed. 11/03 – Meta And Zillow Shut It Down Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

Facebook shuts down its decade-old face scanning and photo tagging feature. Zillow shuts down its house flipping business entirely. Netflix’s foray into games officially launches widely. And Microsoft says hey Zuckerberg, if you think the Metaverse is going to be about work meetings with cartoonish avatars and virtual whiteboards? Hold our beer!

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Tue. 11/02 – Apple Sacrifices iPad Production To Protect The iPhone Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

Apple is cutting iPad production in order to allocate more components to iPhone production. The Biden administration is getting serious about stablecoins. Zoom is going to start showing you ads unless you pay up. Zillow misjudged the housing market. And a security flaw has been found, inside, of all things: Unicode.

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Arm Viewpoints Podcast

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Apple trims iPad production to feed chips to iPhone 13 (Nikkei Asia)
Nintendo to make 20% fewer Switch consoles due to chip crunch (Nikkei Asia)
Biden Administration to Congress: Put Stablecoins Under Federal Supervision – Or We Will (CoinDesk)
Zoom is testing showing ads to free users (The Verge)
‘Trojan Source’ Bug Threatens the Security of All Code (KrebsonSecurity)
Zillow Seeks to Sell 7,000 Homes for $2.8 Billion After Flipping Halt (Bloomberg)
Yahoo Pulls Out of China, Ending Tumultuous Two-Decade Relationship (WSJ)

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