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Latest Episodes:

Thu. 01/28 – Robinhood Freezes Stonks! Jan 28, 2021

Show notes

We finally get to the whole GameStop story cause Robinhood has frozen trading for some folks looking for fresh “tendies.” Apple and Facebook release absolutely killer earnings. As expected. But are they about to go to world war in court? Tesla’s earnings disappoint. And Facebook’s Oversight Board issues its first rulings.

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Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop, other names involved in frenzy (CNBC)
How WallStreetBets Pushed GameStop Shares to the Moon (Bloomberg)
WallStreetBets Founder Reckons With Legacy Amid Stock-Market Frenzy (WSJ)
'Smack It Like E. Honda': Buying NFTs for Pleasure and Profit (CoinTalk)
Mark Zuckerberg says Apple is now one of Facebook’s biggest competitors (CNBC)
Facebook Preps Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple (The Information)
Apple's App Tracking Transparency Feature will be enabled by default and arrive in 'early spring' on iOS (TechCrunch)
Tesla disappoints Wall Street despite strong profits (CNN Business)
Facebook's 'Oversight Board' overturns 4 cases in first rulings (NBC News)

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Wed. 01/27 – Introducing The Ride Home+ Premium Feed Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

Microsoft earnings are insane, as expected. Wonder Woman might have made HBOMax a contender. YouTube is still the king of getting creators paid. What if I told you Atari doesn’t want to be left out of the game streaming wars. And listen to the end of this episode for the big podcast announcement I’ve been promising.

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Microsoft profits jump 33 percent as pandemic continues shift to cloud computing. (NYTimes)
AT&T Q4: HBO Max Activations Double to 17.2 Million, Warner Bros. Revenue Declines 21% (Variety)
Apple fixes another three iOS zero-days exploited in the wild (ZDNet)
Apple just had its best quarter in India (TechCrunch)
YouTube has paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and others over the last three years (The Verge)
Plex is launching a game subscription service filled with Atari games (The Verge)
Google open sources Tilt Brush VR software as it shuts down internal development (TechCrunch)

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Tue. 01/26 – Twitter Acquires Revue Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

Twitter acquires a Substack competitor. It’s also iterating product in terms of… check’s notes: content moderation? The black hats are targeting the white hats in infosec. Interesting executive shuffle at Apple. A $2500 smartphone from Sony that really might be a “pro” device. And would you let me put a 5G gear box in your front lawn? You might not have a choice.

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Links:

Twitter acquiring newsletter publishing company Revue (Axios)
Twitter launches 'Birdwatch,' a forum to combat misinformation (NBC News)
Google warns of ‘novel social engineering method’ used to hack security researchers (The Verge)
Dan Riccio Transitioning to New Project, John Ternus to Lead Apple's Hardware Engineering Team (MacRumors)
Sony’s creator-focused Xperia Pro arrives in the US priced at $2,499 (The Verge)
Americans spend average of $47 a month on streaming services (The Desk)
5G boxes are coming to people’s homes, whether they want them or not (The Verge)

Mon. 01/25 – Clubhouse Raises A New Round At $1B Valuation Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Clubhouse has become a unicorn in, what… nine months? Google is making its facilities available as vaccine centers, while its workers are union organizing globally. Apple wants you to get up and walk. And why the SPAC frenzy could potentially transform the startup ecosystem over the coming months.

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(Bonus) Harvard's Top Astronomer Avi Loeb On Oumuamua Jan 23, 2021

Show notes

In 2017, scientists sighted the first interstellar object, the first thing we definitively know came from outside our solar system… something that was not bound to the gravity pull of our sun. But that was just the beginning of the oddness exhibited by the object known as Oumuamua. It didn’t behave like a comet. It didn’t seem to be made of materials we expect. It was shaped in a way that nothing in nature should be shaped like. And as it curved around our sun, it actually accelerated in a way that we couldn’t account for by the laws of physics. In his new book, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth, which comes out Avi Loeb, Harvard’s top Astronomer, argues that Oumuamua was most likely an alien craft, or artifact of some kind. It likely had some sort of solar sail mechanism, and actually, suggests it might be functioning as some sort of interstellar buoy. We’re going to get into that in this episode, but stay to the end, because forget small satellites, do you know we could shoot a super small probe, about the size of a small satellite, attached to a solar sail and pushed by a laser right now, today? Humanity could reach another star for the first time in just 20 years… in all of our lifetimes, and we could get the data and pictures back within 24 years. Avi is working on this with the backing of Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg among others. So, come for Oumuamua, and stay for the crazy space project that, in my opinion, should be the one we all band together to pursue.

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Fri. 01/22 – Alphabet Sends Loon To The Deadpool Jan 22, 2021

Show notes

What does it mean for Alphabet if it’s starting to cut bait on its “moonshots?” Is Google going to cut bait entirely, on the entire country of Australia? More signs that Apple is atoning for their laptop design sins. Looks like we were right, Plaid is very much, no Visa, no cry. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Alphabet Pops Loon’s Balloons—but Won't Call It a Failure (Wired)
Google threatens to shut down search in Australia if digital news code goes ahead (The Guardian)
Apple Plans Thinner MacBook Air With Magnetic Charger in Mac Lineup Reboot (Bloomberg)
Plaid Shareholders Field Offers at $15 Billion After Merger Collapse (The Information)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Biden picks Jessica Rosenworcel as acting FCC chief (NBC News)
The Inside Story of How the Lowly PDF Played the Longest Game in Tech (Marker)
The Moderation War Is Coming to Spotify, Substack, and Clubhouse (OneZero)
SAMSUNG GALAXY S21 ULTRA REVIEW: THE REAL DEAL (The Verge)
Samsung Galaxy S21 review: The best Android phone for the money (Engadget)

Thu. 01/21 – Mark Gurman Dishes On The Apple VR Headset Jan 21, 2021

Show notes

Apple’s first foray into VR is coming next year, says Mark Gurman, but the real game is in AR and that’s a ways down the road. Amazon wants to help roll out the vaccines. Are laptops getting taller? One chat app to unify them all? And everybody wants a dark mode, even the White House.

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Links:

Apple’s First Headset to Be Niche Precursor to Eventual AR Glasses (Bloomberg)
LG considers exiting smartphones in 2021 (The Verge)
Amazon sends letter to President Biden, says it is ‘ready to assist’ with U.S. vaccination efforts (GeekWire)
Facebook refers Trump ban to independent Oversight Board for review (Axios)
Goodbye and good riddance to the 16:9 aspect ratio (The Verge)
Pebble founder promises iMessage on Android and Windows with universal chat app (The Verge)
WhiteHouse.gov now has dark mode (The Verge)

Wed. 01/20 – A16Z To Get Into The Media Business? Jan 20, 2021

Show notes

Is Andreessen Horowitz about to spin up its own media platform? Anthony Levandowski gets a pardon and Jack Ma resurfaces. Netflix is about to start printing money, and they’re about to give you a “shuffle play” button. And why Ben Thompson thinks Intel is in even more trouble than everybody thinks.

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Andreessen Horowitz Looks to Launch Opinion Publication as Its Media Ambition Grows (The Information)
The Unauthorized Story of Andreessen Horowitz (Newcomer)
Donald Trump pardons ex-Waymo, Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski (Engadget)
Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown (Bloomberg)
Brave becomes first browser to add native support for the IPFS protocol (ZDNet)
Netflix shares rise on strong subscriber growth, considers share buybacks (CNBC)
Netflix’s ‘Shuffle Play’ feature will roll out to all users worldwide this year (TechCrunch)
Intel Problems (Stratechery)
Twitter Thread on the Intel stuff

Tue. 01/19 – Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon 870 Jan 19, 2021

Show notes

Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 870. Cruise, Microsoft and GM all get together in a beautiful marriage that is just as much about cloud computing as it is self-driving. Has the policy controversy endangered WhatsApp in India? And why the whole Smart Home and Internet of Things industry might be taking a breather.

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