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Wed. 12/2 – A Salesforce/Slack Deal Analysis Dec 02, 2020

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A full analysis of the huge Salesforce/Slack deal. What HPE leaving Silicon Valley means, even if only symbolically. Qualcomm’s new flagship Snapdragon chip. All the announcements from AWS re:Invent. A smartwatch with a 9 day battery life and putting holograms right on your mantle might finally be getting practical.

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Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal (TechCrunch)
Why Salesforce bought Slack (Divinations)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is the latest tech company to leave Silicon Valley, and is moving to Houston (CNBC)
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 is a glimpse into how much better your next Android phone will be (CNET)
Amazon to roll out tools to monitor factory workers and machines (Financial Times)
Techmeme Snapshot of re:Invent headlines
Wyze announces $20 smartwatch with nine-day battery life (The Verge)
Looking Glass’s next product is a holographic digital photo frame (TechCrunch)

Tue. 12/01 - Amazon Launches EC2 Mac Instances Dec 01, 2020

Show notes

Amazon launches EC2 Mac instances. Don’t call it Libra. At least, not the Libra Association. Is Samsung thinking about discontinuing the Galaxy Note line? Why DeepMind solving the protein folding problem is such a big deal. Are VR and AR about to blend? And the interesting case surrounding our main computer hacking law that was argued before the US Supreme Court yesterday.

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AWS brings the Mac mini to its cloud (TechCrunch)
Libra Rebrands to ‘Diem’ in Anticipation of 2021 Launch (CoinDesk)
Airbnb seeks valuation of up to $35 billion in its IPO (CNBC)
Samsung may discontinue high-end Galaxy Note smartphones - sources (Reuters)
Reddit Claims 52 Million Daily Users, Revealing a Key Figure for Social-Media Platforms (WSJ)
London A.I. Lab Claims Breakthrough That Could Accelerate Drug Discovery (NYTimes)
AI Protein Breakthrough Tweetstorm (@adamRutherford)
Varjo's lidar-enabled XR-3 VR headset shows where VR and AR are bound to blend (CNET)
Justices express qualms about sweeping computer crime law (Politico)

Mon. 11/30 – DoorDash’s IPO Seems To Be Cresting The Wave Nov 30, 2020

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DoorDash lines up for its IPO and seems to be cresting the wave perfectly. Airbnb is right behind it, swelling a bit as well. Salesforce looks like it will be buying Slack as soon as tomorrow. The UK finally, officially bans Huawei. The monster computer display I want very badly. And remembrances Tony Hsieh, gone, tragically, way too soon.

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DoorDash seeks valuation of up to $32 billion in IPO, double what it was in June (CNBC)
Airbnb, DoorDash Aim for Higher-Than-Expected Valuations Ahead of Debuts (WSJ)
Salesforce deal to buy Slack expected to be announced Tuesday after market close (CNBC)
U.K. Bans Installation of Huawei 5G Gear From September (Bloomberg)
Bitcoin Hits New Record, This Time With Less Talk of a Bubble (NYTimes)
SAMSUNG’S ODYSSEY G9 DOES THE WORK OF THREE MONITORS (The Verge)
Apple Suppliers’ Exodus From China Won’t Slow Down Under Biden (Bloomberg)
Tony Hsieh, RIP (Om.co)
Tony. (Paul Bradley Carr)
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Legacy, From Tech Leaders Who Knew Him Well (Forbes)

Wed. 11/25 – The Blue Checkmarks Are Returning To Twitter Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

Twitter is revving the little blue checkmark engine back up, but it will work slightly differently than before. Stripe is either already impossibly big, or not nearly as big as it should be, depending on your point of view. Are you ready to speculate about the next generation of Apple Silicon chips? And, uniquely for this week, the week… end longreads suggestions.

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VistaPrint.com/techmeme
Tovala.com for $200 off the oven!

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Twitter to relaunch account verifications in early 2021, asks for feedback on policy (TechCrunch)
Payments Startup Stripe in Talks for Funding at $70 Billion Valuation or More (Bloomberg)
MacBook Pro 16-inch M1X chip just leaked — and it's game over for Intel (Tom's Guide)
Kuo: iPhone 12 demand strong, new form factor Apple Watch and MacBooks in late 2021 (9to5Mac)
Ethereum 2.0’s Genesis Day Is Officially Set for Dec. 1 (Coindesk)

Week-end Longread Suggestions:

Can Shopify Compete With Amazon Without Becoming Amazon? (NYTimes Magazine)
Hollywood’s ‘We’re Not in Kansas Anymore’ Moment (NYTimes)
How Venture Capitalists Are Deforming Capitalism (The New Yorker)
Substack got lucky, and so did Margins (Margins)
Why a Paid Newsletter Won't Be Enough Money for Most Writers (And That's Fine): The Multi-SKU Creator (Hunter Walk)
If your website's full of assholes, it's your fault (Anil Dash)

Tue. 11/24 – Apple’s Head Of Global Security Indicted On Bribery Charges Nov 24, 2020

Show notes

Apple’s head of global security is indicted on bribery charges. But… it’s a little nuanced. Facebook turned back the dial on divisive news stories after the election. Forget Substack; why OnlyFans might be the biggest story in terms of creator platforms right now. How Elon Musk became the second richest man in the world, and why Werner Herzog is mad at him.

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Tovala.com for $200 off the oven!
VistaPrint.com/techmeme

Links:

Undersheriff, Apple security chief, businessman indicted in bribery schemes (PaloAltoOnline)
Roiled by Election, Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth (NYTimes)
OnlyFans Chief Talks Sports Ambitions and Role of Adult Content in Site (The Information)
Elon Musk overtakes Bill Gates to become world’s second richest person behind Jeff Bezos (The Verge)
SPACEX MARS CITY: WERNER HERZOG ISSUES A STARK WARNING TO ELON MUSK (Inverse)

Mon. 11/23 - Snapchat Launches Spotlight, A TikTok Clone Nov 23, 2020

Show notes

Cloning Snapchat isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Cloning TikTok. Even Snapchat has joined the bandwagon with Spotlight. Are people fleeing ads in feeds because the market is saturated? I break down all of last week’s big moves in Digital Media. And why the Covid Tracking Project deserves a friggin Nobel Prize.

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Snapchat launches a TikTok-like feed called Spotlight, kick-started by paying creators (TechCrunch)
Facebook Ads Could Be Reaching Saturation Point (WSJ)
BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media (WSJ)
Why the Success of The New York Times May Be Bad News for Journalism (NYTimes)
Bots Grade Your Kids’ Schoolwork—and They’re Often Wrong (WSJ)
Data Heroes of Covid Tracking Project Are Still Filling U.S. Government Void (Bloomberg Businessweek)

(Bonus) Office Hours With Chris Messina Nov 21, 2020

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A deep-dive conversation with hashtag inventor Chris Messina about what makes good product design, how to Product Hunt effectively, and his unique advice about finding success in the Tech Industry.

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Watch this episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vekRLZcnfpU

Fri. 11/20 – Facebook And Apple Trade Schoolyard Taunts Nov 20, 2020

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Facebook and Apple are calling each other names again. “Privacy Thief!” “Monopolist!” And why we might see more of this in the coming years. Roblox files maybe the most exciting S-1 of this IPO batch. Stadia is going to work around the App Store too. Another big milestone crossed for self-driving cars. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Apple doubles down on upcoming iOS 14 privacy features, slams Facebook for collecting ‘as much data as possible’ (9to5Mac)
Roblox files for its IPO (Axios)
Stadia will be playable on iOS via Safari in the coming ‘weeks’ (9to5Google)
Robotaxi companies get the green light to charge for rides in California (TechCrunch)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions

‘An overnight success 10 years in the making’: Atlanta is the future for Black leaders in tech (Protocol)
Huawei, 5G, and the Man Who Conquered Noise (Wired)
The Substackerati (CJR)
Jack Ma vs. the Party: Inside the collapse of the world's biggest IPO (Nikkei Asia)
Ok Google: please publish your DKIM secret keys (Matthew Green's Blog)
‘Like Being Grilled Alive’: The Fear of Living With a Hackable Heart (OneZero)

Thu. 11/19 – Google Pay Pivots In An Interesting Way Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

A major strategy shift for Google Pay might be a big deal. But a minor shift in YouTube monetization is the same old, same old. Apple pays to settle an investigation into iPhone throttling. Affirm files for its IPO. Apple Silicon continues to absolutely wow people, and by the way, the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera is wowing professional photographers.

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Google Pay gets a major redesign with a new emphasis on personal finance (TechCrunch)
YouTube will run ads on some creator videos, but it won’t give them any of the revenue (The Verge)
Affirm drops S-1, revealing sharply rising revenue on a narrower net loss (FinLedger.com)
Apple to pay $113 million to settle state investigation into iPhone ‘batterygate’ (The Washington Post)
Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service launches on iOS as a web app (The Verge)
Pixelmator Pro gets update for M1 Macs (The Verge)
Apple releases forked version of TensorFlow optimized for macOS Big Sur (VentureBeat)
The iPhone 12 Pro Max: Real Pro Photography (Halide Blog)
Apple embraces iOS 14 home screen customization by fixing how app shortcuts work (TechCrunch)

Wed. 11/18 – Crack! Apple Cuts Its App Store Vig In Half Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

The App Store has cracked open a bit. Apple will cut its vigorish in half, for most developers, but not the ones that make them the most money. Robinhood is probably gonna join the cavalcade of IPOs. Marissa Mayer is back. And the biggest social network you’ve probably never heard of is coming from France.

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