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Thu. 10/22 – Quibi QUIckly BItes The Dust Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

Quibi’s dead baby. Quibi’s dead. Jony Ive is going to design stuff for… Airbnb? The Mate 40 Pro is the best flagship smartphone you’ll probably never want to buy. What if Snapchat conquers India? The Bahamas launches the first official cryptocurrency for an entire country. And look out cause Tesla is turning on the self-driving beta starting now…

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Quibi's Open Letter
Quibi Is Shutting Down Barely Six Months After Going Live (WSJ)
In defense of Quibi (Recode)
Airbnb announces multi-year partnership with Jony Ive, a year after leaving Apple (9to5Mac)
Huawei’s Mate 40 Pro is another powerful flagship that you won't buy (Engadget)
Snapchat doubles down on India with new original series, games (The Economic Times)
Central Bank of Bahamas Launches Landmark ‘Sand Dollar’ Digital Currency (Coindesk)
Tesla is putting ‘self-driving’ in the hands of drivers amid criticism the tech is not ready (Washington Post)

Wed. 10/21 – PayPal Adds Crypto Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Big news for crypto as PayPal adopts it, both for users to buy, but also, crucially, for them to spend. Facebook is testing a Nextdoor killer. Update on the Quibi deathwatch. Tech earnings snuck up on me and Evan Spiegel had a good night. And let’s end today with another review roundup. This time of the new iPad Air.

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PayPal to allow cryptocurrency buying, selling and shopping on its network (Reuters)
Dropbox's family plan offers a shared 2TB for $17 per month (Engadget)
Facebook Building Neighborhood Feature as Nextdoor Eyes IPO (Bloomberg)
Katzenberg May Shut Down Quibi as Options Run Short (The Information)
Netflix misses on subscriber additions and EPS (CNBC)
Snap stock rockets up after surprise earnings beat (CNBC)
APPLE IPAD AIR (2020) REVIEW: TAKE IT FROM THE PRO (The Verge)
Apple iPad Air (2020) review: Who needs the iPad Pro? (Engadget)
Review: iPad Air, smooth criminal (TechCrunch)

Tue. 10/20 – The DOJ Antitrust Suit Against Google Oct 20, 2020

Show notes

The Feds have finally thrown the book at Google. But the DOJ has also targeted the infamous Sandworm hackers. Intel sells its NAND memory unit as consolidation in chips continues. Microsoft partners with Elon Musk to take its battle with AWS to space. What product is Google abandoning today? And the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro reviews are here. Which one should you get?

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The DOJ sues Google for monopoly practices – and says there’s more to come (Protocol)
Justice Department Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google (WSJ)
U.S. Accuses Google of Illegally Protecting Monopoly (NYTimes)
US charges Russian hackers behind NotPetya, KillDisk, OlympicDestroyer attacks (ZDNet)
Intel Agrees to Sell Storage Unit to SK Hynix for $9 Billion (Bloomberg)
Google confirms the Nest Secure has been discontinued (Android Police)
Google discontinues its Google Nest Secure alarm system (The Verge)
Microsoft launches Azure Space initiative; partners with SpaceX (ZDNet)
APPLE IPHONE 12 PRO REVIEW: AHEAD OF ITS TIME (The Verge)
APPLE IPHONE 12 REVIEW: RAISING THE BAR (The Verge)
Review: iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, two gems, one jewel (TechCrunch)
iPhone 12 and 12 Pro review: Apple enters the 5G era (Engadget)

Mon. 10/19 – Apple Launches Apple Music TV (A-MTV? iMTV?) Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

Apple wants to you to want your A-MTV. iMTV? I dunno. Apple has launched a music videos channel. The new Samsung Galaxies might be coming sooner than ever. The company bringing AR to car windshields. And why Japan saying it’s getting on the regulate tech bandwagon might be the tipping point for the entire sector.

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(Bonus) What Is DeFi? With CoinDesk's Brady Dale Oct 17, 2020

Show notes

I don’t think I’ve made any bones about the fact that I blow hot and cold on crypto. Sometimes I grow frustrated that it always seems to be a lot of sound and fury, ultimately signifying nothing. Or at least, not amounting to much that touches normal people’s lives. I dunno if that’s a fair way to look at crypto or not. But at the same time, there is no single corner of tech that has more activity, that has more passion and energy and, just pure, crazy creativity. Lots of people in crypto have adopted my book about the first half of the Internet Era because they hope it’s a guide for how, just when everyone has written off a movement, that’s when it finally breaks through. And I’ll admit, that’s why I keep my eye on a space. That’s why the activity around DeFi has caught my eye. By some measurements, this is crypto actually being USED, in a tangible real world way, and in volumes of activity we’ve never seen before. Is DeFi actually fulfilling the original economic promise of crypto? What, the heck, is DeFi? What is it doing? It’s hard for a knucklehead like me to get my mind around. So, I sent out the bat signal to Brady Dale of CoinDesk to tell me, what the heck is going on with DeFi?

Brady's rough history of the DeFi movement

Brady's explanation of Yield Farming

Fri. 10/16 – You Can Now Hum To Search Music On Google Oct 16, 2020

Show notes

Google now lets you whistle or hum to search, which sounds crazy I know, or crazy cool. Are we due for one more Apple event this year? The FCC wants to kill section 230 but actually can’t. Could you do machine learning with practically no data to learn off of? And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Google’s new ‘hum to search’ feature can figure out the song that’s stuck in your head (The Verge)
Apple might hold another event on November 17 to introduce first Apple Silicon Mac (9to5Mac)
Trump Foes Fume Over FCC’s Efforts to Rein In Twitter (Bloomberg)
A radical new technique lets AI learn with practically no data (MIT Technology Review)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Thu. 10/15 – Xbox Series X Preview Oct 15, 2020

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It’s hardware review Thursday! Reviews of the Xbox Series X, Google Pixel 5 AND 4a 5G. SOME of the new iPhones are getting extra RAM. Room-temperature superconductivity has been achieved for the first time and what that could mean. Landscape is an interesting raise. And Adam Neumann is back… and so is WeWork.

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XBOX SERIES X PREVIEW: THE NEXT GEN FEELS LIKE A PC (The Verge)
GOOGLE PIXEL 4A 5G REVIEW: MORE THAN JUST A BIGGER BUDGET PHONE (The Verge)
Google Pixel 5 review: An off year for Pixel fans (Engadget)
iPhone 12 Pro Models Have 6GB of RAM, iPhone 12 and 12 Mini Remain at 4GB (MacRumors)
Room-temperature superconductivity has been achieved for the first time (MIT Technology Review)
WeWork’s Adam Neumann Returns to Real Estate With Startup Investment (Bloomberg)
Landscape site launches with the aim of becoming the 'Glassdoor for VC' (TechCrunch)

Wed. 10/14 – iPhone 12 Pricing and Availability Surprises Oct 14, 2020

Show notes

Picking up some odds and ends from yesterday’s iPhone event, including some eyebrow raising clarifications on price and availability. Zoom is indeed trying to be a platform by bringing apps to your calls. You know DeFi is hot when everyone is suddenly rebranding themselves as DeFi. And is Dropbox leading the way to a virtual work future?

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BlueNile.com, code RIDE for $50 off your purchase of over $750.
ForHims.com/tech

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The iPhone 12’s mysterious groove is a 5G mmWave antenna window — and it’s exclusive to the US (The Verge)
iPhone 12 actually costs $829, advertised $799 price includes ‘carrier special offers’ (9to5Mac)
Snapchat among first to leverage iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR Scanner for AR (TechCrunch)
Zoom launches its events platform and marketplace, brings apps to your calls (TechCrunch)
‘DeFi’ Replaces ‘Blockchain’ as the Must-Have Crypto Moniker (Bloomberg)
Dropbox is the latest San Francisco tech company to make remote work permanent (CNBC)
Dropbox goes Virtual First (Dropbox Blog)
WordPress can now turn blog posts into tweetstorms automatically (TechCrunch)

Tue. 10/13 – The iPhone 12 Event: All The Deets Oct 13, 2020

Show notes

All the details from the iPhone 12 event. PC shipments go into the category of “doing well in covid times.” Disney announces a reorg to emphasize its streaming strategy. And following up on that whole Foxconn factory in Wisconsin promise. Hint: it looks like vaporware.

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Mon. 10/12 – Nest’s New Smart Thermostat Ditches the Rotating Dial Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

Google’s Nest thermostat is ditching the iconic dial design. Will regulators first ask Google to divest itself of Chrome? A big takedown of a botnet that could have influenced the election. Update on Quibi’s shopping itself around. And why Covid has made Caterpillar hit the gas on robo-construction machines.

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Masterworks.io, select PODCAST, then promocode: RIDE
ForHims.com/tech

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Google’s Nest announces new smart thermostat with simpler design, lower price (The Verge)
Feds may target Google’s Chrome browser for breakup (Politico)
Microsoft and others orchestrate takedown of TrickBot botnet (ZDNet)
Microsoft takes down massive hacking operation that could have affected the election (CNN Business)
Katzenberg Strikes Out on Quibi Sale Efforts, So Far (The Information)
Twilio confirms it is buying Segment for $3.2B in an all-stock deal (TechCrunch)
On Facebook, Misinformation Is More Popular Now Than in 2016 (NYTimes)
Caterpillar bets on self-driving machines impervious to pandemics (Reuters)

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