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Wed. 12/30 – Apple Loses A Copyright Lawsuit Dec 30, 2020

Show notes

Apple loses an interesting copyright law case. Get ready to see TikToks in your Google searches. Amazon’s “other” business unit is becoming a monster. The tech consumers did, and did not AS MUCH partake in over the holidays. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. For the final time in 2020, here’s what you missed in the world of tech.

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Apple loses copyright battle against security start-up Corellium (Washington Post)
Google pilots a search feature that aggregates short-form videos from TikTok and Instagram (TechCrunch)
Amazon’s advertising business booms in pandemic (Financial Times)
Apple iPhone Devices Sweep 9 of Top 10 Devices on Christmas 2020 (Flurry)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

The Turing Test is obsolete. It’s time to build a new barometer for AI (Fast Company)
Tech Choices Dictate Teen Friendships During Pandemic (WSJ)
Ambani Sold a Tech Dream for $27 Billion. Now He Has to Deliver (Bloomberg)
Where Year Two of the Pandemic Will Take Us (The Atlantic)
With Money, and Waste, China Fights for Chip Independence (NYTimes)
The Lasting Lessons of John Conway’s Game of Life (NYTimes)

Tue. 12/29 – Coinbase To Suspend Trading of XRP Dec 29, 2020

Show notes

Coinbase is suspending trading of XRP. Ant Group tries to appease the CCP. Will we soon see immunity passports on our phones? We now know the identity of the first tech IPO of the new year. And why, if you’re doing to do some dirt, you might want to know that your car is probably going to bust your alibi.

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CalderaLab.com code: TECHMEME (all caps, one word)
Tovala.com/ride

Links:

Coinbase to Suspend XRP Trading Following SEC Suit Against Ripple (CoinDesk)
Ant Considers Holding Company With Regulation Similar to Bank, Sources Say (Bloomberg)
Los Angeles Vaccine Recipients Can Put the Proof in Apple Wallet (Bloomberg)
Qualtrics Files for U.S. IPO Two Years After Sale to SAP (Bloomberg)
Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects' alibis (NBC News)
TV Ratings: First Streaming-Only NFL Game Scores Solid Numbers for Amazon (Variety)

Link to the AMA Auction with Andrew Wilkinson and Chris Sparling:

https://lu.ma/tinyama

Mon. 12/28 – After Jack Ma, Is China Freezing Its Entire Tech Sector? Dec 28, 2020

Show notes

The Chinese Communist Party is throwing serious cold water on its entire tech sector by continuing to target Jack Ma. Did Elon Musk once try to sell Tesla to Apple? Drones are getting digital license plates, of a sort. And a look at the generation of search engine startups hoping to, you know, maybe strike at Google while the antitrust iron is hot.

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Beijing launches antitrust investigation into Alibaba (Financial Times)
China Tells Ant to Return to Its Payment Roots, Places Curbs (Bloomberg)
Alibaba Probe Stirs Global Worry on What’s Next for Chinese Tech (Bloomberg)
Kuo: Apple Car Still in Early Stages, Unlikely to Launch Until 2025-2027 at Earliest (MacRumors)
Drone-Crowded Skies Get One Step Closer With U.S. Security Rules (Bloomberg)
Search engine start-ups try to take on Google (Financial Times)
Covid-19 Propelled Businesses Into the Future. Ready or Not. (WSJ)

Wed. 12/23 – XRP, The 3rd Biggest Cryptocurrency Might Be In Big Trouble Dec 23, 2020

Show notes

The SEC does indeed sue Ripple, and that could be a bigger deal than I thought. Twitter won’t hand over the @Potus Twitter followers to Biden. What Zoom wants to do for its next act beyond video. Controlling your AirPods with your teeth. And, special for this week, a Long Holiday Weekend edition of the Longreads Suggestions.

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Hawthorne.co, promocode: techmeme
Tovala.com/ride

Links:

SEC Sues Ripple Over 7-Year, $1.3B ‘Ongoing’ XRP Sale (CoinDesk)
Biden @POTUS Account Reset to Zero With Trump Followers Out (Bloomberg)
Telegram, nearing 500 million users, to begin monetizing the app (TechCrunch)
Buoyed by Video Success, Zoom Explores Email, Calendar Services (The Information)
Apple Patent reveals new Through-Body' input for AirPods allowing users to control functionality by touching their face, clicking their teeth & more (Patently Apple)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Our Digital Lives Drive a Brick-and-Mortar Boom in Data Centers (NYTimes)
The North Carolina Kid Who Cracked YouTube’s Secret Code (Bloomberg)
What if life were a video game? These 650,000 people imagine it that way. (The Washington Post)
Czech Startup Founders Turn Billionaires Without VC Help (Bloomberg)
Inside the Whale: An Interview with an Anonymous Amazonian (Logic Magazine)
Star Wars toys keep changing, and leaving kids behind (Polygon)
Shigeru Miyamoto Wants to Create a Kinder World (The New Yorker)

Tue. 12/22 – Why I Think The Apple Car Is For Real Dec 22, 2020

Show notes

See… I had a feeling. Reuters says Apple really is revealing an Apple Car in the coming years. More details on that suit charging Facebook and Google allegedly agreed to divvy up the ad market. The third biggest cryptocurrency says the SEC is coming after it. And the crazy story behind those sexy butt-flap pajama ads you’ve seen all over the internet.

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CalderaLab.com, promocode TECHMEME (all caps, one word) at checkout for 20% off.
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Mon. 12/21 – Big Day For Real Estate Tech Dec 21, 2020

Show notes

Huge day for Real Estate tech with Opendoor going public to a soaring valuation and RealPage getting bought for a ton of money. Microsoft might design its own custom silicon, cause, why not (to quote Vincent Hanna)? Is the first under the display selfie camera basically a fail? And could we actually see the Apple Car debut as soon as next year?

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GetArmorLock.com
Hawthorne.co promocode: techmeme

Links:

Opendoor Rides SPAC Deal to Lofty $18 Billion Valuation at Market Debut (The Information)
Real estate software and data analytics company RealPage to be acquired for $10.2 billion (VentureBeat)
Russia’s Hacking Frenzy Is a Reckoning (Wired)
Microsoft Designing Its Own Chips for Servers, Surface PCs (Bloomberg)
U.S. States Weighs New Google Suit Over App Store Fees (Bloomberg)
THE WORLD’S FIRST UNDER-DISPLAY SELFIE CAMERA ISN’T VERY GOOD (The Verge)
Sketchy Report Says Apple Car is Years Ahead of Schedule, Will Debut Next Year (MacRumors)

Fri. 12/18 – Chinese Drone Maker DJI Blacklisted By The US Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

Drone maker DJI is blacklisted by the commerce department. Group video comes to Echo devices. Twitter launches Spaces. Sony offers refunds for Cyberpunk 2077. Coinbase files to go public. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Sponsors:

Masterworks.io, promocode RIDE to skip the waitlist
Calderalab.com use code TECHMEME (all one word, all caps) at checkout

Links:

US government adds DJI to Commerce blacklist over ties to Chinese government (The Verge)
Amazon launches group video and audio calling for Echo devices (The Verge)
Twitter launches its voice-based ‘Spaces’ social networking feature into beta testing (TechCrunch)
Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds (The Verge)
Source Code newsletter
A moment of reckoning: the need for a strong and global cybersecurity response (Microsoft Blog)
Coinbase announces IPO in a milestone for the crypto industry (Fortune)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Where Tech Workers Are Moving: New LinkedIn Data vs. the Narrative (Big Technology Newsletter)
Why I Decided to Leave Substack (A Media Operator Newsletter)
New WarnerMedia chief Jason Kilar is moving to shake up Hollywood. Insiders are questioning if he has what it takes to turn around the entertainment giant without destroying it. (Business Insider)
Can’t get a PlayStation 5? Meet the Grinch bots snapping up the holidays’ hottest gift. (Washington Post)
How AltaVista, our first good search engine, fell into the digital abyss (Tedium)
My $200,000 Sushi Dinner (NYTimes)

Link to today's easter egg on YouTube

Thu. 12/17 – The Apple-Facebook Cold War Is Getting Hot Dec 17, 2020

Show notes

Mommy and Daddy are fighting. This time it’s Apple and Facebook and it’s getting pretty heated. The EU okays Google’s acquisition of Fitbit. Substack has resurrected Google Reader, in spirit at least. And why the new antitrust lawsuit against Google is maybe the most serious yet, because we’re talking about actual felonies here. Potentially. Allegedly.

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Wed. 12/16 – Google’s Stadia Arrives on iOS and iPadOS In Beta Dec 16, 2020

Show notes

Day three of the SolarWinds hack fallout sees major investors unloading stock at a suspicious time. M1 chip support comes to some major apps. Periscope joins the Deadpool. Bitcoin crosses $20k. An AirPods Max review. And what if you could make a digital platform for board games?

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Stadia comes to the iPhone and iPad with new iOS beta (The Verge)
Investors in breached software firm SolarWinds traded $280 million in stock days before hack was revealed (The Washington Post)
Microsoft starts rolling out native Microsoft 365 for Mac apps for Macs with M1 (ZDNet)
Firefox Updated With Native Support for M1 Macs, Mozilla Touts 'Dramatic Performance Improvements' (MacRumors)
Exclusive: States close to filing new Google antitrust suit (Politico)
Bitcoin Hits Record Above $20K as Analysts Remain Confident of Future (Coindesk)
APPLE AIRPODS MAX REVIEW: LUXURIOUS SOUND FOR A LUXURY PRICE (The Verge)
I’m so excited about this board games console I just peed a little (TNW)

Tue. 12/15 – Europe’s Big New Rules for Big Tech Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Europe’s big new regulatory regime for big tech. More fallout from what looks like the biggest hack our government has ever seen. The FTC asks basically everyone in tech how they get their data. A ‘faraday fabric’ that can serve as an invisibility cloak for radio waves. An interesting raise to make exoskeletons. And a review of the new all electric Ford Mustang.

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