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Fri. 08/07 – The Executive Order To Ban TikTok and WeChat Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

The President officially signs an order to block ByteDance AND Tencent. Apple confirms the reasons why xCloud and Stadia aren’t coming to iOS any time soon. Uber is now, officially, more burrito delivery company than taxi company. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Trump will prohibit transactions with ByteDance beginning September 20th in apparent TikTok ban (The Verge)
Mark Zuckerberg Says A Ban On TikTok Would Set “A Really Bad Long-Term Precedent” (BuzzFeed.news)
Apple confirms cloud gaming services like xCloud and Stadia violate App Store guidelines (The Verge)
I'm Open Sourcing the Have I Been Pwned Code Base (TroyHunt.com)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Pinduoduo: Vertically Integrated Social Commerce (Turner Novak's Substack)
The New Network (The Bulwark)
The Vigilante Hunting Down Cheaters in Video Games (Motherboard)
The Next 'Mafia'? Mapping The Alumni Of Square (Protocol)
Dan Rose Kindle Tweet Thread
How TikTok’s Owner Tried, and Failed, to Cross the U.S.-China Divide (NYTimes)

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Thu. 08/06 – Will The US’s “Clean Network” Plan Break The Internet? Aug 06, 2020

Show notes

Will the US Government’s “Clean Network” plan lead to the definitive fracturing of the Internet we’ve all feared? Nintendo is killing it thanks to Covid and Animal Crossing. Are Samsung’s new earbuds actually Cool Beans? You no longer have to pay Apple $700 to put wheels on your Mac Pro. And why wireless charging could be a global environmental disaster waiting to happen.

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BlueNile.com code: RIDE

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Trump administration wants to see ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat removed from U.S. app stores, Pompeo says (CNBC)
The US is building a new Great Firewall (Quartz)
TikTok to Spend $500 Million on First EU Data Center in Ireland (Bloomberg)
TikTok announces first data center in Europe (TechCrunch)
Animal Crossing outsells Breath of the Wild in mere months (Polygon)
SAMSUNG GALAXY BUDS LIVE REVIEW: COOL BEANS (The Verge)
OWC undercuts Apple's $699 Mac Pro wheels with $199 conversion kit (Apple Insider)
Wireless Charging Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen (OneZero)

Wed. 08/05 – Samsung’s Unpacked Event And The New Galaxy Note 20s Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

All of the headlines from the Samsung Unpacked event: new Galaxy Note 20s, New Galaxy Buds, New Galaxy Watch and more. Disney has already hit its goal for Disney+. ByteDance remains defiant even as Facebook launches Instagram Reels. And Anthony Levandowski remains defiant, even as he is sentenced.

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Tue. 08/04 – Last Hurrah? iMacs Get A Major Update Aug 04, 2020

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Last hurrah? Intel iMacs get a major update. The TikTok, Microsoft, Trump situation can only be described as nuts-o-butts-o. Looks like Garmin paid the ransom. Why xCloud is launching soon on Android but not on iOS. And get ready for games to get more expensive with the next generation consoles.

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Apple updates the iMac with new Intel processors and a better webcam (The Verge)
Trump calls TikTok a hot brand, demands a chunk of its sale price (TechCrunch)
Microsoft Should Refuse Trump’s TikTok Payoff (WSJ)
Microsoft’s Talks to Buy TikTok’s U.S. Operations Raise Ire in China (WSJ)
China Brands Trump’s Demands on TikTok Sale a ‘Smash and Grab’ (Bloomberg)
Garmin reportedly paid multimillion-dollar ransom after suffering cyberattack (The Verge)
Mergers: Commission opens in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google (EU Commission)
Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming will launch on September 15th on Android (The Verge)
Take-Two Interactive coasts to $831.3 million in Q1 2021 revenue as fans flock to online games (Venture Beat)
Take-Two: Next-gen software price hikes "reflect the quality of the experience" (GamesIndustry.biz)

Mon. 08/03 – The TikTok, Microsoft, Trump Ban Saga Explained Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

TikTok has not been banned by Trump, but it came close this weekend. Microsoft almost walked away from buying TikTok this weekend, but it looks like it’s back on board and might buy non-Chinese TikTok operations soon. Google invests in ADT. The new Pixel 4As are here. And a profile of the alleged teenaged Twitter hack mastermind who has now been arrested.

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Links:

Inside the Microsoft Talks to Buy TikTok’s U.S. Business (WSJ)
Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the United States (Official Microsoft Blog)
Exclusive: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to clinch TikTok deal (Reuters)
Google to invest $450M in smart home security solutions provider ADT (TechCrunch)
GOOGLE ANNOUNCES PIXEL 5, PIXEL 4A 5G, AND PIXEL 4A ALL AT ONCE (The Verge)
GOOGLE PIXEL 4A REVIEW: BACK TO BASICS FOR $349 (The Verge)
System for thwarting deepfakes unveiled (Axios)
From Minecraft Tricks to Twitter Hack: A Florida Teen’s Troubled Online Path (NYTimes)

Fri. 07/31 – Nvidia In Talks To Buy Arm? Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

Sources say Nvidia is in talks to buy Arm. Music Videos are coming to Facebook in a bigger way. The iPhone is delayed a tiny bit. A run-down of the earnings reports: TLDR: Apple made a ton of money when people thought they wouldn’t but Alphabet shrunk for the first time ever. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

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Nvidia in talks to buy Arm from SoftBank for more than $32bn (Financial Times)
Facebook Is Set to Finally Get the Rights to Show Music Videos (Bloomberg)
Apple confirms short release delay for this year's iPhones (Axios)
Comment: Analysts half-right about AAPL’s Q3 … but so wrong! (9to5Mac)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions

Philosophers On GPT-3 (updated with replies by GPT-3) (Daily Nous)
Independence, autonomy, and too many small teams (Kislay Verma)
Tech Sector Feeling COVID-19’s Economic Pain (Indeed Hiring Lab)
The Gig Economy Is Failing. Say Hello to the Hustle Economy. (OneZero)
Car Companies Want to Monitor Your Every Move With Emotion-Detecting AI (Motherboard)

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Thu. 07/30 – A Comprehensive (8-Minute) Rundown of the Big Tech Congressional Testimony Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

A comprehensive rundown of the big tech testimony in Congress yesterday. Don’t worry. I tried to keep it brief. Are seller fees quietly twice as big a business for Amazon as AWS is? There’s a new king of the smartphone hill as Huawei surpasses Samsung. And I think we can officially say that the Peacock launch has been a success.

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Links:

‘INSTAGRAM CAN HURT US’: MARK ZUCKERBERG EMAILS OUTLINE PLAN TO NEUTRALIZE COMPETITORS (The Verge)
Report: Amazon’s Monopoly Tollbooth (ILSR.org)
Encrypted Messaging App Telegram Files Antitrust Complaint Against Apple With EU (MacRumors)
Google's $2.1 billion Fitbit deal faces EU antitrust probe: sources (Reuters)
Canalys: Huawei trumps Samsung for first time in worldwide smartphone market in Q2 2020 (Canalys)
TikTok says it will pay creators a total of $2 billion in the next 3 years (Digital Trends)

Wed. 07/29 – Big Tech CEO’s Testimony Before Congress Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

A rundown of what the big tech CEO’s told Congress this afternoon. Are Samsung and Google about to get a lot more integrated? The biggest news in the ongoing streaming media transformation of Hollywood. Buying out TikTok is going to be pretty expensive. And Shopify’s earnings blow the roof off the place.

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Tue. 07/28 – Instagram Is Making TikTok-ers An Offer (They Hope) They Can’t Refuse Jul 28, 2020

Show notes

What to expect from tomorrow’s Big Tech Congressional testimony. Instagram is trying to woo TikTok stars. Qualcomm has some amazing new quick charge tech. Roblox continues to look like the next big thing. And Deadspin—the true Deadspin—lives to fight another day.

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Their Businesses Went Virtual. Then Apple Wanted a Cut. (NYTimes)
Google’s Top Search Result? Surprise! It’s Google (The Markup)
Congress has battled airlines, banks, tobacco and baseball. Now it’s preparing to clash with Big Tech. (Washington Post)
Facebook Offers Money to Reel In TikTok Creators (WSJ)
Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 5 refuels phones 50% in 5 minutes, 100% in 15 (VentureBeat)
Roblox jumps to over 150M monthly users, will pay out $250M to developers in 2020 (TechCrunch)
After Quitting Deadspin in Protest, They’re Starting a New Site (NYTimes)

Mon. 07/27 – Googlers May Not Return To The Office Until NEXT July Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

Google’s offices might remain closed due to Covid for another full year. Australia has sued Google on competition and consumer grounds. Looks like Garmin is being ransomed. A handheld device to replace guide dogs for the blind. And you know Software as a Service, but get ready for Hardware as a Service.

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Links:

Google to Keep Employees Home Until Summer 2021 Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (WSJ)
ACCC takes second swing at Google for allegedly misleading customers (ITNews)
Samsung Galaxy Unpacked trailer teases five new devices to be unveiled on August 5th (The Verge)
Garmin outage caused by confirmed WastedLocker ransomware attack (Bleeping Computer)
VCs and startups consider HaaS model for consumer devices (TechCrunch)
Mobility device for the blind works like a handheld robotic guide dog (New Atlas)

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