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Thu. 03/04 – Is Square Buying Tidal A Watershed Moment For The Creator Economy? Mar 04, 2021

Show notes

Square is acquiring a majority stake in Tidal, and either this makes little sense, or it’s a watershed moment in this NFT/creator economy phenomenon that’s suddenly washing over all of us. Apple walks the walk in terms of data portability. But they’re facing serious new anti-trust scrutiny in the UK and Arizona. And our year of Covid, at least measured in internet traffic numbers.

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Square acquires majority of Tidal, Jay-Z’s streaming service, in $297 million deal. (NYTimes)
Apple Launches Service for Transferring iCloud Photos and Videos to Google Photos (MacRumors)
Apple Probed by U.K. as App Store Payments Scrutiny Mounts (Bloomberg)
Arizona App Store Bill (The Verge)
Ethereum now an option on Amazon’s managed blockchain service (The Block)
Comcast: Pandemic drove peak internet traffic up 32% in 2020 (VentureBeat)

Wed. 03/03 – Google (Sorta) Pivots To Privacy Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

Google says it’s getting out of the ad tracking game. Kinda. I’ll explain what’s really going on here. Headline wrapup from Microsoft’s Ignite conference includes AR excitement. Brave is launching a privacy search engine. And why Amazon’s app icon redesign reminded people of Hitler’s mustache.

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Google promises it won’t just keep tracking you after replacing cookies (The Verge)
Google to Stop Selling Ads Based on Your Specific Web Browsing (WSJ)
Microsoft says China-backed hackers are exploiting Exchange zero-days (TechCrunch)
Recovering from the SolarWinds hack could take 18 months (MIT Technology Review)
Microsoft launches Power Fx, a new open source low-code language (TechCrunch)
Microsoft Mesh feels like the virtual future of Microsoft Teams meetings (The Verge)
Brave is launching its own search engine with the help of ex-Cliqz devs and tech (TechCrunch)
Amazon shaves app icon mustache that raised eyebrows (The Verge)

My podcast NFT!

Tue. 03/02 – iPhone 13 To Go Notch-Less? Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

Is the iPhone about to lose the notch and join the hole-punch universe? Whole bunch of new features for Microsoft Teams, and also a new Microsoft smart-speaker. Instacart has a monster raise. Grimes has a monster NFT sale. Discovery+ is an interesting dark-horse in the streaming wars. Oh. And “fly” drones.

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Tonight's Clubhouse Experiment

Mon. 03/01 – Instagram Launches Live Rooms For Group Broadcasts Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

Instagram launches Live Rooms for group broadcasts, which, depending on how you use it is either basically FaceTime for Instagram, or another shot across the Clubhouse bow. Is the micromobility space revving up to roar back to health? Are US-based drone makers about to step into the void left by DJI? And Chris Dixon tries to contextualize NFTs for us.

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Instagram launches ‘Live Rooms’ for live broadcasts with up to four creators (TechCrunch)
Verizon support says you should turn off 5G to save your phone’s battery (The Verge)
Lime says it will spend $50 million on a huge e-bike expansion (The Verge)
Skydio valuation raises American hopes in drone war with China (Financial Times)
Klarna Valued at $31 Billion After U.S. Growth Stoked Investors (Bloomberg)
As BNPL startups raise, a look at Klarna, Affirm and Afterpay earnings (TechCrunch Extra)
NFTs and a Thousand True Fans (Chris Dixon/Andreessen Horowitz)

(Bonus) Techmeme Experience On Clubhouse Feb 27, 2021

Show notes

Chris Messina and I go deeper on some of the news of the week.

Fri. 02/26 – Twitter Does ALL The Things (Even $$$ For Tweets) Feb 26, 2021

Show notes

Twitter just wants to give us everything all of the sudden, including charging for tweets, sort of groups based on interests, and even blocking and muting accounts. Google gives devs a Sleep API. Why has LastPass decided to piss everyone off all of the sudden? Why Xiaomi is the up-and-comer to keep your eye on. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Links:

Twitter announces paid Super Follows to let you charge for tweets (The Verge)
Twitter planning a feature to let you auto-block and mute abusive accounts (The Verge)
Google launches Android Sleep API to detect snoozing, waking up; available to apps now (9to5Google)
1Password has none, KeePass has none... So why are there seven embedded trackers in the LastPass Android app? (The Register)
European Smartphone Market Down 14% YoY in 2020; Xiaomi gains while Huawei and Samsung Lose (Counterpoint Research)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Xiaomi is undercutting the whole tech industry. And it’s working (Wired)
American Idle (Eugene Wei)
Why Plus Is a Minus When Naming Your Streaming Site (NYTimes)
Shockingly Real Tom Cruise Deepfakes Are Invading TikTok (Daily Beast)
We're Just Rediscovering a 19th-Century Pandemic Strategy (The Atlantic)

Subscribe to RideHome+ to listen to the Gadgets episode here: tech.supercast.tech

Thu. 02/25 – The Biden Administration Addressed The Chip Shortage Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

The Biden administration signs an executive order addressing the chip shortage. I’ll tell you why this is evolving into a big deal. Coinbase files its S-1 so we get to look under the hood of their business for the first time. Paramount+ reveals pricing and content details for the first time. And timely interesting raises in the Ethereum space which means: NFTs.

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Wed. 02/24 - Facebook Defends Its Stance In Australia Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Facebook defends its stance in Australia. MicroStrategy doubles down on its stance vis-à-vis bitcoin. Is “Sign In With Apple” the new stick the antitrust folks might use to beat Apple with? But conversely, have you noticed that social networking has gotten hella competitive lately? What does that mean for anti-trust arguements vis-à-vis Facebook. Oh, and a skateboard for AR glasses.

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Links:

The Real Story of What Happened With News on Facebook in Australia (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook got everything it wanted out of Australia by being willing to do what the other guy wouldn’t (Nieman Lab)
MicroStrategy Buys $1 Billion More Bitcoin, Totalling $4.5 Billion (Decrypt)
HP is buying gaming accessory brand HyperX for $425 million (The Verge)
Apple’s App Sign-in Button Becomes Hot-Button Issue in U.S. Antitrust Probe (The Information)
How social networks got competitive again (Casey Newton's Platformer)
VCs are chasing Hopin upwards of $5-6B valuation (TechCrunch)
Qualcomm’s new AR ‘Smart Viewer’ lets you pin virtual screens to your walls (The Verge)

Link to the Clubhouse Event Tonight at 10pm eastern, 7pm pacific

Tue. 02/23 – Australia Caves To Facebook Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

Australia caves in to Facebook. PlayStation is planning a big new push in VR. The Mate X2 keeps the foldable dream alive. The weird new malware infecting Apple Silicon Macs. And let’s use NBA Top Shot as a lens to explain NFTs.

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Links:

Facebook to reverse news ban on Australian sites, government to make amendments to media bargaining code (ABC.net.au)
PlayStation CEO says PS5 will get its own VR headset, explains console supply chain shortfall (Washington Post)
Huawei’s Mate X2 foldable adopts Samsung’s dual-screen design (The Verge)
Kuo: New MacBook Pro Models With HDMI Port and SD Card Reader to Launch Later This Year (MacRumors)
New malware found on 30,000 Macs has security pros stumped (ArsTechnica)
Inside 'NBA Top Shot,' the Digital Highlights Marketplace Worth Millions (Bleacher Report)

Mon. 02/22 – Spotify’s New “HiFi” Subscription Tier Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

Spotify’s new HiFi subscription tier. Clubhouse has security concerns. Apple is king of the smartphone hill once again. Maybe the biggest survival story of the Covid-19 era is about the IPO. And is the Facebook news ban pushing Australians into the arms of the news publishers themselves?

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Links:

Spotify HiFi is a lossless streaming tier coming later this year (The Verge)
Clubhouse Chats Are Breached, Raising Concerns Over Security (Bloomberg)
Apple Surpassed Samsung as World's Largest Smartphone Maker in Fourth Quarter (MacRumors)
Restaurant-Software Provider Toast Prepares for IPO (WSJ)
Google fires another AI ethics leader (Axios)
Australia’s ABC News shot to the top of the App Store charts following Facebook’s news ban (The Verge)

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