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Thu. 01/09 – The Wildfire App Everyone In LA Has Been Using Jan 09, 2025

Show notes

Big new zero day to tell you about. Apple says Siri is safe, honest. Google rolls out an AI Daily Listen audio feature. Looking at the next wave of wearable AI. And let me tell you about WatchDuty, the app everyone in LA was using overnight.

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Hackers are exploiting a new Ivanti VPN security bug to hack into company networks (TechCrunch)
Apple says Siri isn’t sending your conversations to advertisers (The Verge)
Google’s ‘Daily Listen’ lab is a personalized podcast based on your Discover feed (9to5Google)
SoftBank’s Chip Designer Arm Considers Acquiring Ampere Computing (Bloomberg)
Your Next AI Wearable Will Listen to Everything All the Time (Wired)
With L.A. on alert, wildfire app Watch Duty adds 600,000 users overnight (Los Angeles Times)
LA residents find a lifeline in this free wildfire-tracking app (The Verge)
‘It’s not just alerts, it’s a state of mind’: How a wildfire monitoring app became essential in the US west (The Guardian)

Wed. 01/08 – Fallout From Meta’s Content Moderation Changes Jan 08, 2025

Show notes

Tons and tons of controversy and fallout from Meta’s announced content moderation changes yesterday. I’ve got I think a fair, comprehensive rundown of all the angles. Interesting new rounds for Bluesky and Anthropic. And the coolest stuff I’ve seen from CES thus far, including: are rollable laptop screens finally ready for prime time?

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Tue. 01/07 – Nvidia Still Takes CES Seriously Jan 07, 2025

Show notes

Meta is completely revamping its fact-checking program, going instead with a version of Community Notes. A new Tesla recall, but for a different reason. Dell is taking rebranding to new, Google-like lows. All the headlines from a jam-packed Nvidia keynote. And what about an AI copilot but for gaming?

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LinkedIn.com/ride

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US opens probe into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over remote driving feature (Reuters)
Getty Images and Shutterstock agree to merge (Axios)
Getty Images and Shutterstock to Merge in $3.7 Billion Deal (The Wrap)
Dell kills the XPS brand (The Verge)
Nvidia announces next-gen RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs (The Verge)
Nvidia’s Project Digits is a ‘personal AI supercomputer’ (TechCrunch)
Razer Project Ava: would you pay an AI to help you get good at games? (The Verge)

Mon. 01/06 – Sam Altman Is Already Moving Past AGI Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

Sam Altman says AGI isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Superintelligence. Why is nobody using Meta’s AI profiles? Keep an eye on Zuck, is my advice. The big trend at CES so far is AI inside smart TVs. And our first day wrap up of some of the cool things we’ve seen so far at CES.

Sponsors:

Oracle.com/techmeme

Links:

Reflections (Sam Altman's Blog)
Meta's AI Profiles Are Indistinguishable From Terrible Spam That Took Over Facebook (404 Media)
Samsung spreads Vision AI across its 2025 TV portfolio (VentureBeat)
LG and Samsung are adding Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant to their TVs (The Verge)
LG’s 2025 OLED TVs are its best yet — but they risk going overboard with AI (The Verge)
CES 2025: We Spent Hours Watching a Robot Vacuum Pick Up Socks. It's a Dream Come True (CNET)
Stop Scalding Your Tongue: This $25 Cat Robot 'Blows' on Your Drink to Cool It (CNET)
Elvie unveils an app-controlled smart bouncer that transforms into a bassinet at CES 2025 (TechCrunch)
TiVo-powered TVs are coming to the US (The Verge)

Fri. 01/03 – Turns Out, Siri WAS Listening To You! Jan 03, 2025

Show notes

Apple pays a fine cause Siri was listening in on what you said. Strava does a tie-in with Apple Fitness+. Net Neutrality is dead again, and it looks like for good this time. The nuclear winter in the VC space, CES is coming for us all, and a Weekend Longreads Suggestion.

Links:

Apple to pay $95 million to settle Siri privacy lawsuit (Reuters)
Apple Fitness Plus and Strava are collaborating with a new integration (The Verge)
US appeals court blocks Biden administration effort to restore net-neutrality rules (Reuters)
AI-generated phishing scams target corporate executives (Financial Times)
Number of US venture capital firms falls as cash flows to tech’s top investors (Financial Times)
Asus, Samsung, and MSI announce world’s first 27-inch 4K OLED 240Hz monitors (The Verge)

Weekend Longreads Suggestion:

AI Needs So Much Power, It’s Making Yours Worse (Bloomberg)

(BNS) The Golden Girls - With Christina Warren Jan 01, 2025

Show notes

Among other things, learn how Miami Vice inspired the Golden Girls, how the Golden Girls helped finance the making of the movie Reservoir Dogs, whether or not Betty White and Bea Arthur hated each other, where the Golden Girls house was, and the real ages of the actresses when they were playing Golden Girls.

Special guest, Christina Warren, @film_girl!

Mon. 12/30 – Welcome To A USB-C Life Dec 30, 2024

Show notes

AT&T and Verizon say they’ve rooted out Salt Typhoon. Trump asks the Supreme Court to intervene in the TikTok situation. All the banks want to be like Tether. And as we slide into this new year, it’s a USB-C world now, we’re just living in it.

Links:

Fri. 12/27 – A New “Definition” Of AGI Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

Microsoft and OpenAI are reportedly having problems deciding how make this whole, reclassifying as for-profit thing work. Oh, also, they secretly decided on a new definition of artificial general intelligence that is tied to tangible dollar value. At the tail end of the year, the most interesting new AI model of the year. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.

Links:

Microsoft and OpenAI Wrangle Over Terms of Their Blockbuster Partnership (The Information)
Microsoft and OpenAI’s Secret AGI Definition (The Information)
DeepSeek-V3, ultra-large open-source AI, outperforms Llama and Qwen on launch (VentureBeat)

Weekend Longreads Suggestions:

Video Games Can’t Afford to Look This Good (NYTimes)
Hawk Tuah Wasn’t What It Seemed (The Atlantic)
The Paper Passport Is Dying (Wired)
You Need to Create a Secret Password With Your Family (Wired)

(BNS) Calvin And Hobbes - With Daniel Kibblesmith Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

Was Calvin And Hobbes the greatest comic strip ever? Or maybe a great work of art of the 20th Century? Why did Bill Watterson disappear? Was Calvin "good" (morally)? Was Hobbes "real"? Why were there never any toys? Would we ever really want Calvin and Hobbes to come back?

With special guest @kibblesmith!

Mon. 12/23 – The Revenge Of Google Glass? Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

How about a Ring Doorbell, but from Apple? How about Meta Ray Ban’s but crossed with Google Glass? How everybody is combining forces to bid for defense contracts. How Tether won the crypto profitability wars. And how Britannica has not only survived the Internet era, but is actually thriving?

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1Password.com/ride

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