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Thu. 12/05 - Why The New Snapdragon Chips Don’t Have Integrated 5G Dec 05, 2019

Show notes

The FTC might be broadening its look into Amazon, the new flagship Snapdragon Chips, a disc-free Xbox, checkins with Slack, Imgur and Robinhood, and craigslist enters the 21st century.

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Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud Business (Bloomberg)
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 865 and 765(G): 5G For All in 2020, All The Details (AnandTech)
Sources: Microsoft Is Still Planning A Cheaper, Disc-Less Next-Gen Xbox (Kotaku)
Slack Raises Outlook After Winning New Corporate Customers (WSJ)
300M-user Imgur launches Melee, a gaming meme app (TechCrunch)
Red Flags for Robinhood (Fortune)
Craigslist Finally Gets an Official App (Gizmodo)

Wed. 12/04 - Larry and Sergey Into The Sunset Dec 04, 2019

Show notes

Larry and Sergey ride their Segway’s off into the sunset, a new entrant in the streaming wars, more news from the re:Invent conference, YouTube says it’s algorithm change is working and the year that was, in the world of Reddit.

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A letter from Larry and Sergey (The Keyword)
GOOGLE’S THIRD ERA (The Verge)
Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service in over 200 countries (TechCrunch)
With Outposts, Local Zones, and Verizon, AWS looks beyond the cloud (Mostly Cloudy)
YouTube says viewers are spending less time watching conspiracy videos. But many still do. (The Washington Post)
Instagram to collect ages in leap for youth safety, alcohol ads (Reuters)
Reddit's monthly active user base grew 30% to reach 430M in 2019 (TechCrunch)
Subreddit That Hates on ‘Game of Thrones’ Is the Most Popular TV Subreddit of 2019 (The Wrap)

Tue. 12/03 - Pablo Escobar's Brother's Smartphone Dec 03, 2019

Show notes

Headlines from re:Invent, how tech is caught up in a tariff war with France, Facebook created a chatbot to help employees explain themselves during the holidays, and let me tell you about the new foldable phone from Pablo Escobar’s brother.

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AWS Graviton2: What it means for Arm in the data center, cloud, enterprise, AWS (ZDNet)
AWS launches its custom Inferentia inferencing chips (TechCrunch)
Trump Administration Proposes Tariffs Against $2.4 Billion of French Goods (WSJ)
Former Google employees who say they were fired for organizing are filing labor charges against the company (Vox)
Google fired us for organizing. We’re fighting back. (Google Walkout For Real Change)
TikTok curbed reach for people with disabilities (NetzPolitik.org)
TikTok prevented disabled users’ videos from showing up in feeds (The Verge)
DHS wants to expand airport face recognition scans to include US citizens (TechCrunch)
Facebook Gives Workers a Chatbot to Appease That Prying Uncle (NYTimes)
Pablo Escobar's Brother Has Apple In His Crosshairs With... an 'Unbreakable' Foldable Phone? (Gizmodo)

Mon. 12/02 - When An E-Sports Team IPO's Dec 02, 2019

Show notes

Interesting Galaxy S11 leaks, T-Mobile flips the switch on its 5G network, might different models of next year’s iPhone have different versions of 5G, the rundown of Black Friday/Cyber Monday and why an e-sports team is IPO-ing.

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Samsung Suddenly Exposes Radical New Galaxy Smartphone [Updated] (Forbes)
T-Mobile launches 600MHz 5G across the US, but no one can use it until December 6th (The Verge)
4 new iPhones could have 5G in 2020, but not the same kind of 5G (Mashable)
Google and Facebook run into more trouble over data in Europe (CNN Business)
Driving Innovation in Data Portability with a New Photo Transfer Tool (Facebook Newsroom)
Black Friday sees record $7.4B in online sales, $2.9B spent using smartphones (TechCrunch)
Now even the FBI is warning about your smart TV's security (TechCrunch)
Amazon debuts automatic speech recognition service, Amazon Transcribe Medical (TechCrunch)
Amazon’s kooky new keyboard lets humans and AI write music together (Fast Company)
Counter-Strike World Champions Aim for First Esport Team IPO (Bloomberg)

(Bonus) The Forgotten Online Pioneer, Bill von Meister Nov 29, 2019

Show notes

Since it’s a holiday week in the US, I’m going to do what I’ve done once before on Holiday weeks and give you an episode from the Internet History Podcast archives. This is a story about tech history that, if you’ve never heard it, will blow your mind. What if I told you there was a crazy entrepreneur who was the true founder of what would become America Online? He was the guy who hired Steve Case back before AOL was AOL. What if I told you that same entrepreneur invented true, networked, online gaming—not in the era of the Xbox 360, or Stadia, but back in the days of the Atari 2600? What if I then told you that same entrepreneur invented a Napster/Pandora/Spotify/Sirius-like music service, all the way back in 1981, before the compact disc was even widely available? That Man Is William von Meister And he is the subject of this episode. This is a crazy story, about a hard drinking, heavy-smoking, women-chasing entrepreneur, seemingly from the Mad Men cloth, who was “a pathological entrepreneur” with a “reality-distortion-field” that would give Steve Jobs a run for his money. It’s a story of about a dozen harebrained businesses, none of which were really successful (excepting of course that some or all of them lent their DNA to the company that would become AOL) but all of which were way ahead of their time, and in many ways, presaged technologies we take for granted today.

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Tues. 11/26 - Amazon Prime Cuts Nov 26, 2019

Show notes

Google fires four workers associated with labor organizing, Amazon's ruthless quotas lead to high rates of warehouse injuries, grass-roots opponents to Amazon's power form a coalition, a report cites the public cost of Amazon warehouses on Southern California, the California DMV is selling driver information, the Rev transcription service exposes contractors to horrific recordings, Facebook pays people to take surveys, Zuckerberg mostly listens to old white men, a TikTok teen spreads the news about Chinese mistreatment of Muslim Uyghurs, and Texas Instruments keeps toting up new profits from an old calculator style.

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Google fires four workers, including one tied to protests (Bloomberg)
Ruthless Quotas at Amazon Are Maiming Employees (the Atlantic)
Amazon's Own Numbers Reveal Staggering Injury Rates at Staten Island Warehouse (Gizmodo)
Grass-roots activists on Amazon's power coalesce (New York Times)
Amazon costs Southern California big time in public assistance for its workers, environmental and transportation impact (Economic Roundtable)
California DMV makes $50 million a year selling personal information (Vice)
Rev Transcribers Hate the Low Pay, But the Disturbing Recordings Are Even Worse (The Verge)
Facebook pays people to take surveys (Engadget)
Zuck talks to old white men (Bloomberg)
TikTok suspended a teen who posted a viral takedown of China disguised as a makeup tutorial (Business Insider)
The Texas Instruments Chained-Calculation Massacre (Medium's GEN)

Mon. 11/25 - Deadpool Buys an MVNO Nov 25, 2019

Show notes

Uber loses its license in London, the web’s founder launches a “contract” to save it, eBay sells StubHub, the Threadrippers seem to be the real deal, Deadpool is buying a mobile carrier and Elon Musk knows why those windows cracked.

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Uber loses London licence after TfL finds drivers faked identity (The Guardian)
Tim Berners-Lee unveils global plan to save the web (The Guardian)
EBay to sell StubHub to Viagogo for about $4 billion in cash (CNBC)
India's financial services firm Paytm raises $1B (TechCrunch)
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X Review: 24 and 32 Cores on 7nm (AnandTech)
AMD confirms 64-core Threadripper 3990X for 2020 (The Verge)
Ryan Reynolds now owns a stake in budget carrier Mint Mobile (Engadget)
Elon Musk explains why Tesla’s Cybertruck windows smashed during presentation (The Verge)
Tesla's polarizing Cybertruck was preordered 200,000 times within 3 days (USA Today)

Fri. 11/22 - CYBERTRUCK! Nov 22, 2019

Show notes

We gotta talk about Cybertruck, Twitter continues its shipping products hot streak, AirPods are hotter than even Apple anticipated, some trouble in Russia for gadget makers and, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

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Behold, the Tesla Cybertruck is here (TechCrunch)
Tesla accidentally busted two windows on the Cybertruck while demonstrating how tough they are (TechCrunch)
Wall Street analysts say Tesla’s pickup is ‘really weird’ and Ford can ‘breathe a sigh of relief’ (CNBC)
Tesla all-electric ATV makes a surprise debut at Cybertruck event (TechCrunch)
Russia bans sale of gadgets without Russian-made software (BBC News)
Twitter will finally let users disable SMS as default 2FA method (ZDNet)
Twitter rolls out its 'Hide Replies' feature to all users worldwide (TechCrunch)
Apple AirPods Shipments Expected to Double to 60 Million in 2019 (Bloomberg)
Microsoft pushes Surface Earbuds release back to spring 2020 (Windows Central)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

How our home delivery habit reshaped the world (The Guardian)
The Architect of Modern Algorithms (Quanta Magazine)
Spotify’s Daniel Ek Has a Plan to Harness Hollywood for Podcasts and Create "the World’s No. 1 Audio Platform" (The Hollywood Reporter)
Inside the Most Watched YouTube Channel in the World (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Global Protests Reveal Bitcoin’s Limitations (CoinDesk)
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino: A Big, Beautiful 50-Year Friendship (GQ)

Thu. 11/21 - Google's Culture Is Dead Nov 21, 2019

Show notes

Google is changing its rules around political ads, PayPal is acquiring Honey for a ton of money, why have a Dash Button when you can have a Dash Shelf? Route puts all your orders in one place and I’m afraid Google’s original culture is definitively dead.

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An update on our political ads policy (The Keyword/Google)
Google to Limit Targeting of Political Ads (NYTimes)
Facebook Weighs Steps to Curb Narrowly Targeted Political Ads (WSJ)
PayPal to acquire shopping and rewards platform Honey for $4B (TechCrunch)
Amazon unveils new Dash Smart Shelf that automatically reorders items when supplies run low (GeekWire)
Route's app auto-tracks all your packages, raises $12M (TechCrunch)
Inside Apple’s iPhone Software Shakeup After Buggy iOS 13 Debut (Bloomberg)
Google Hires Firm Known for Anti-Union Efforts (NYTimes)

Wed. 11/20 - Our 500th Episode! Nov 20, 2019

Show notes

Hackers could take over your Android cameras, the police can do whatever they want with your Ring videos, if your Disney+ account is hacked, is it probably your fault? An amazing breakthrough in solar technology and why fishing by drone has become a thing.

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Android Camera App Bug Lets Apps Record Video Without Permission (BleepingComputer)
Police can keep Ring camera video forever and share with whomever they’d like, Amazon tells senator (Washington Post)
Amazon says it’s considered face scanning in Ring doorbells (Associated Press)
Hacked Disney+ accounts are reportedly being sold for as little as $3 (CNBC)
Apple expands in Austin (Apple Newsroom)
Secretive energy startup backed by Bill Gates achieves solar breakthrough (CNN)
A new solar heat technology could help solve one of the trickiest climate problems (Vox)
Tackle Box for the Modern Fisherman: Rod, Reel, Drone (WSJ)

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