Tech Brew Ride Home

Latest Episodes:

Mon. 04/13 – Back To The iPhone 5 Design Future? Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Deeper dives into that Google/Apple contact tracing project, solid rumors about the new iPhone design, the telecom industry might lose $25 billion dollars this year and international roaming charges are to blame, and an open source live streaming and video streaming app that can help you Twitch and YouTube better, without being beholden to their tools.

Sponsors:

Links:

@moxie Tweet Thread
How Apple and Google are tackling one of the toughest parts about tracking COVID-19 exposures (The Verge)
NHS phone app holds key to lifting UK’s coronavirus lockdown (The Times (UK))
Apple Plans iPad-Like Design for Next iPhone, Smaller HomePod (Bloomberg)
SoftBank Group forecasts $7-bn full-year net loss (Yahoo Finance)
Son’s $2 Billion Guarantee at Risk as Virus Hits SoftBank Star (Bloomberg)
Fall of the roaming empire: telecom groups face revenue loss as travel collapses (Financial Times)
As YouTube Traffic Soars, YouTubers Say Pay Is Plummeting (OneZero)
‘It’s still niche’: Esports see audience surge, more tepid ad demand (Digiday)
Anyone's a Celebrity Streamer With This Open Source App (Wired)

(Bonus) Tech Giant Psychoanalysis With Alex Kantrowitz Apr 11, 2020

Show notes

I couldn’t tell you the amount of times, over the last two years, I’ve quoted pieces from Alex Kantrowitz on this show. Hundreds of times? Easy? Alex is the senior tech reporter at Buzzfeed News, and, while I don’t have favorite people to quote from on this show (I shouldn’t anyway) the sheer number of times I quote from someone should tell you something about the amount of news they break. The insights they have. Alex has an amazing new book out called Always Day One- How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever. And as I said yesterday, it’s an amazing breakdown of not only the cultural DNA of each of the tech giants, but also a useful playbook to their success… a way to understand how they do what they do and why they win more often than not. Amazing book. Anyone who listens to this show every day will find it useful in informing the competitive analysis we always engage in.

Sponsor:

Tovala.com/ride

Buy the book here! Always Day One - How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever

Fri. 04/10 – HUGE: Apple and Google Join Forces For Coronavirus Contact Tracing Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Amazon is creating a system to test its own employees for Coronavirus, Google creates a system to help with unemployment claims, one more attempt to keep track of the Google messaging branding mess, more evidence Zuckerberg really is jealous of Instagram, and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Sponsors:

Tovala.com/ride
Caramba.store Code: Brian50

Links:

Apple, Google debut major effort to help people track if they’ve come in contact with coronavirus (Washington Post)
Amazon developing coronavirus testing lab for workers (Washington Post)
The pandemic is playing to almost every one of Amazon's strengths (CNN Business)
Google creates online unemployment application with state of New York (CNBC)
Google is rebranding Hangouts Chat as just Google Chat (The Verge)
Everyone can now access their Instagram DMs on the web (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Can Airbnb Survive Coronavirus? (Citylab)
Atlassian’s tools helped build today’s tech. How’s it prepping for the future? (Protocol)
Zuckerberg’s Jealousy Held Back Instagram and Drove Off Founders (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Was Leisure Suit Larry Really an Accomplice in Early Banking Cyberattacks? (Vice)
Has Apple finally bitten off way more than it can chew? (WiredUK)
Apple, Amazon, and Common Enemies (Stratechery)

Thu. 04/09 – Why The Pandemic Might Be Long-Term Good For The Internet Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Disney+ continues to blow the doors off the place. Good old phone calls are back, along with the Desktop web. Don’t expect to see new emoji for a while. Stadia is free for anyone with a Gmail account, COBAL skills are in high demand and why the pandemic might be a long-term good for Internet infrastructure.

Sponsors:

Links:

Disney+ Surpasses 50 Million Paid Subscribers After Launches in Europe & India (The Streamable)
Zoom removes meeting IDs from client title bar to boost security (Bleeping Computer)
MICROSOFT THINKS CORONAVIRUS WILL FOREVER CHANGE THE WAY WE WORK AND LEARN (The Verge)
The Humble Phone Call Has Made a Comeback (NYTimes)
Microsoft: Don't expect any Windows 10X devices this calendar year (ZDNet)
No one’s getting new emoji in 2021 because of the pandemic (The Verge)
Google Stadia now free to anyone with a Gmail address (Polygon)
Now It’s Falling Apart (OneZero)
Why the coronavirus lockdown is making the internet stronger than ever (MIT Technology Review)
Twitter notifies users that it’s now sharing more data with advertisers (The Verge)

Wed. 04/08 – The Desktop Web Is Back (for the time being…) Apr 08, 2020

Show notes

Jack Dorsey literally puts his money to work for Coronavirus relief. More details on that Airbnb lifeline raise. Details on an interesting telemedicine raise. Netflix has increased parental controls, Google is pushing a mandatory new setup for Android development and why the desktop web is back, for the time being anyway.

Sponsors:

Caramba.store; promocode: BRIAN50
CognitoHQ.com

Links:

@jack's tweet storm
Airbnb Paying More Than 10% Interest on $1 Billion Financing Announced Monday (WSJ)
Airbnb In Talks To Raise More Debt (Bloomberg)
Update on Zoom’s 90-Day Plan to Bolster Key Privacy and Security Initiatives (Zoom Blog)
Netflix will allow parents to remove movies and shows, filter by rating in new update (The Verge)
Google is requiring Virtual A/B on new Android 11 devices, paving the way for mandatory Seamless Updates (XDA Developers)
Microsoft is freezing hiring except in some unspecified 'strategic areas' (Business Insider)
All Microsoft events will be digital-only until July 2021 (The Verge)
The Virus Changed the Way We Internet (NYTimes)
Restaurant management platform Toast cuts 50% of staff (TechCrunch)
Tyto Care raises $50 million to grow its telehealth examination and diagnostic platform (VentureBeat)
Google's video chat service adds 2 million users a day amid coronavirus (CNET)
Don’t be surprised when ‘Hangouts Meet’ becomes ‘Google Meet’ (9to5Google)

Tue. 04/07 - The Latest Startup Gunning For Gmail Apr 07, 2020

Show notes

WhatsApp wants to make it harder for things to go viral. Airbnb buys some runway. Foursquare merges with another location data company. Checking in with Masa Son. And the latest startup to say it wants to blow up email and unseat Gmail.

Sponsors:

Caramba.store code: Brian20
F5.com/ride

Links:

WhatsApp to impose new limit on forwarding to fight fake news (The Guardian)
Airbnb is raising $1 billion amid fallout from coronanvirus (CNBC)
Foursquare Merges With Factual, Another Location-Data Provider (WSJ)
Masayoshi Son Talks WeWork, Vision Fund and Softbank Under Siege (Forbes)
Pixel April updates land, bringing eyes-open face unlock setting to the Pixel 4 (Android Police)
Microsoft Buys Corp.com So Bad Guys Can’t (KrebsonSecurity)
This tiny startup thinks it can do email better than Google (Protocol)

Subscribe to the ad free feed!

Mon. 04/06 – Happy Quibi Day! Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Happy Quibi day everybody. Check out your Quick Bites for free while you can! Apparently the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is a hella powerful laptop, but that’s apparently why the battery life sucks. And the Covid-related conspiracy theory inspiring people to set cellphone towers on fire in Britain.

Sponsors:

MindSET Podcast - Leidos.com/podcast
Caramba.store, code BRIAN20 for 20% your first order

Links:

Quibi app review: shifting landscape (The Verge)
How to stream Quibi (The Verge)
SAMSUNG GALAXY CHROMEBOOK REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL TO A FAULT (The Verge)
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook review: Great, until the battery runs out (Engadget)
Tim Cook: Apple shipping custom face shields to medical workers as mask donations cross 20M (9to5Mac)
Call for social media platforms to act on 5G mast conspiracy theory (The Guardian)
Russian telco hijacks internet traffic for Google, AWS, Cloudflare, and others (ZDNet)
Microsoft Edge is now 2nd most popular desktop browser, beats Firefox (BleepingComputer)

Fri. 04/03 - It’s An 80’s Style Free HBO Bonanza! Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Tech companies are, in fact, stepping up to track Covid-19. We have a name for the new low-end iPhone. Tesla soars but the Space X Starship doesn’t. Watch some free HBO this weekend, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Sponsors:

Links:

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Google Data Centers’ Secret Cost: Billions of Gallons of Water (Bloomberg Green)
Microsoft Edge is becoming the browser you didn’t know you needed (Ars Technica)
The Xbox Series X master plan (Polygon)
From courts to consoles: With live sports canceled, pro athletes join the streaming surge (The Washington Post)
Telemedicine, Once a Hard Sell, Can’t Keep Up With Demand (WSJ)
The Medical News Site That Saw the Coronavirus Coming Months Ago (NYTimes)

Thu. 04/02 - Zoom Apologizes And Wow's On DAUs Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

Zoom apologizes, but also reveals some INSANE growth numbers. Facebook Messenger comes to desktop. YouTube wants to clone TikTok. Apple let’s some people avoid the App Store tax. More gross firings by teleconference and a timely interesting raise.

Sponsors:

Links:

A Message to Our Users (Zoom Blog)
Facebook debuts standalone Messenger app on Mac and PC (Engadget)
'Content network effect' makes TikTok tough to copy (TechCrunch)
YouTube Plans ‘Shorts’ to Rival TikTok (The Information)
Apple Lets Some Video Apps Sell Shows Without Taking 30% Cut (Bloomberg)
'It Felt Like a Black Mirror Episode' The Inside Account of How Bird Laid off 406 People in Two Minutes via a Zoom Webinar (dot.LA)
Notion, Maker of Collaboration Software, Raises $50 Million (NYTimes)

Wed. 04/01 - The Zoom Privacy Storm Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

We’ve reached the end of the John Legere era. Samsung thinks we’ve reached the end of the LCD era. Comcast is inadvertently proving ISP datacaps are BS. Is Zoom a victim of its own success? And it’s maybe not overstating things to say it’s past time Amazon should start thinking more humanely about… people.

Sponsors:

Sponsors:

Legere is out as T-Mobile CEO as Sprint merger officially closes (CNBC)
Samsung Display to end all LCD production by end 2020 (Reuters)
Marriott discloses new data breach impacting 5.2 million hotel guests (ZDNet)
Comcast waiving data caps hasn’t hurt its network—why not make it permanent? (Ars Technica)
Zoom Lets Attackers Steal Windows Credentials via UNC Links (Bleeping Computer)
@c1truz_ thread about Zoom
Amazon's Covid Hiring Boom Has Applicants Packed Into Job Fairs With No Special Precautions (Bloomberg)
Amazon Struggles to Find Its Coronavirus Footing. ‘It’s a Time of Great Stress.’ (WSJ)
Amazon's past catches up with it (The Interface)

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected