Amazon acquires Eero, Apple is putting marketing muscle behind AR, looks like everyone was abusing Apple’s Enterprise Certificate program, and the new video game sensation giving Fortnite a run for its money. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Why Amazon buying Eero feels so disappointing (The Verge) Your Smart Light Can Tell Amazon and Google When You Go to Bed (Bloomberg) Apple Taps iPhone Executive to Be First Head of Marketing for AR (Bloomberg) Apple fails to block porn &a...
Feb 12, 2019•16 min
The Trump Administration wants America to get serious about AI, Patch is actually profitable, Reddit raises a round, Apple Health for vets and hands on with AR navigation on Google Maps. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Trump to lay out an AI plan (Axios) US military equipped with tiny spy drones (ZDNet) It’s the Real World—With Google Maps Layered on Top (WSJ) The alternative to your dying local paper is written by one person, a robot, and you (Recode) Reddit raised $300 mil...
Feb 11, 2019•16 min
Remember this longread piece? Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class? It's stuck with me because, a) I didn't quite understand how the math worked out and b) I thought it was an interesting take on the ARTIST side of the equation as we move to a streaming/subscription/one-app-for-that future. So, we're talking to the author of the piece, Victor Luckerson, for more insight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Feb 10, 2019•17 min
I’ve told you plenty that this year, one of the big narratives, one of THE big stories... will be 5G. But what exactly IS 5G? Well, I spoke to Peter Linder, the head of 5G marketing, and evangelist at Ericsson. Here are all the answers to your questions, to prepare us for Mobile World Congress, which is coming later this month, and where all of this 5G stuff might finally begin to happen. For real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Feb 09, 2019•18 min
Yes, we’re gonna talk about the Bezos thing, is Amazon reconsidering HQ2, Sprint sues over 5G, maybe digital media is just fine, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: FlatironSchool.com/techmeme Metalab.co Links: No thank you, Mr. Pecker (Jeff Bezos on Medium) Facing opposition, Amazon reconsiders NY headquarters site, two officials say (Washington Post) Sprint sues AT&T over its fake 5G branding (Engadget) Google warns about two iOS zero-days 'exploited in the wild' (ZDNet) Can S...
Feb 08, 2019•19 min
Germany is this week’s headache for Facebook, Twitter mixes up its MAU and DAU game, Cluno is subscriptions but for cars and Optimus Ride is what we mean by starting small with autonomous vehicles. Sponsors: Metalab.co DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Facebook ordered by Germany to gather and mix less data (BBC) How Facebook’s Tiny China Sales Floor Helps Generate Big Ad Money (NYTimes) Twitter Q4 Earnings (TechCrunch) Skype Can Now Blur Your Background So You Don't Have to Frantically Tidy Your Ro...
Feb 07, 2019•16 min
THE expert on the Podcasting Industry breaks down today's big news. Subscribe to Nick's newsletter, HotPod. This episode has a full transcript. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 06, 2019•19 min
Podcasting has its biggest news day ever, some pretty big executive shakeups, the new emojis for 2019 and how to steal a million dollars from an ATM without anyone noticing. Sponsors: QCon.ai Promocode: QCONAI2019 Metalab.co Links: Spotify has bought two podcast startups and it wants to buy more (ReCode) Relaxation app Calm raises $88 million, valuing it $1 billion (CNBC) Facebook’s top PR exec is leaving (ReCode) 230 New Emojis in Final List for 2019 (EmojiPedia) Programmer finds ridiculous ATM...
Feb 06, 2019•16 min
It’s getting more expensive for Google to make money, Facebook turns fifteen, choosing your own adventure is becoming a trend, and one specific way Fortnite is measurably bigger than the Super Bowl. Sponsors: Metalab.co DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Eero.com/ride and code: ride at checkout Links: Being Google is getting very expensive (QZ) Zuckerberg's Facebook Post Facebook Makes First Blockchain Acquisition With Chainspace: Sources (Cheddar) Boring Game Plus New Orleans Rebellion Leads to Ratings Dro...
Feb 05, 2019•17 min
Soon you can play Xbox live everywhere, Google unveils Live Transcribe, Slack files to go public, the most crypto story ever and why CAPTCHA’s have gotten so difficult. Sponsors: QCon.ai - Save $75 with code: QCONAI2019 Metalab.co Links: Microsoft wants to bring Xbox Live cross-platform gaming to Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and more (WindowsCentral) Slack confidentially files to go public (CNBC) Crypto Exchange Says It Can't Repay $190 Million to Clients After Founder Dies With Only Password ...
Feb 04, 2019•18 min
Ars Technica's Timothy B. Lee gives me odds on my self-driving car wager. Sponsor: Eero.com/ride promocode: ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Feb 03, 2019•21 min
For years, Jay Yarrow and Farhad Manjoo had a podcast, the Jay and Farhad show. You might remember Jay from his time at BusinessInsider (he’s an executive editor at CNBC now) and Farhad of course is a NYTimes columnist. Well, they stopped doing the podcast late last year, which was a super bummer for a lot of us. Jay and Farhad had a super cool chemistry and I know a lot of people for whom the show was unmissable. Well, I got Jay and Farhad to put the band back together, so you’re about to hear ...
Feb 02, 2019•35 min
Turns out Google poked Apple in the eye also, layoffs hit Vice, Amazon reports earnings and reports that a ton of people responded to that minimum wage hike, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple restores Google's internal iOS apps after certificate misuse punishment (TechCrunch) Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election (The Washington Post) Vice Media to Reor...
Feb 01, 2019•20 min
Facebook returns to growth, iPhones might be getting USB-C and 3D cameras, Hulu’s launching pause-ads, and on Reddit, it’s paintings of paintings of paintings of birds, all the way down. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Mark Zuckerberg wants to get back to building new Facebook products (ReCode) Nintendo cuts Switch sales forecast despite strong holiday season (The Verge) Apple Is Planning 3-D Cameras for New iPhones in AR Push (Bloomberg) HACKERS ARE PASSING AROUND A MEGALEA...
Jan 31, 2019•15 min
Facebook decides to mix it up a bit: what if we had a scandal that pissed off our business partners? Apple’s earnings are mixed but you can see where they’re going with this. Why Americans no longer answer the phone and are you ready for 1TB smartphones? Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them (TechCrunch) Apple blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps (The Verge) Apple Reports First Quarter Results (Apple Newsroom) Rep...
Jan 30, 2019•21 min
Pretty major FaceTime bug from Apple, the DOJ makes it’s case against Huawei, the first successful ICO of the year and what Bluetooth ‘direction finding’ might do for you. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Major iPhone FaceTime bug lets you hear the audio of the person you are calling … before they pick up (9to5Mac) U.S. Charges Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets, Bank Fraud (Bloomberg) BitTorrent Tokens Sold Out in Under 15 Minutes, Netting Over $7 Mln (CoinTelegraph) Bluetoo...
Jan 29, 2019•17 min
An Apple subscription gaming service? Is Facebook Watch still alive? The GDPR floodgates are truly open. And losing to AI’s might have some benefits. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple Plans Gaming Subscription Service: Sources (Cheddar) A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won’t Be ‘Assembled in U.S.A.’ (NYTimes) China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018 (South China Morning Post) China's smartphone shipments dropped 14 percent in 2018 (TechCrunch) Facebook Watch Isn’t Li...
Jan 28, 2019•17 min
One of my favorite people to read is the Wall Street Journal tech columnist Chris Mims. We talked about his piece this week positing that email was back, baby! And I read a piece he did a while back about the new way of constructing super energy efficient homes, but when I did the email piece and remembered he did a piece recently about how I’m more likely to get a burrito delivered to me for lunch than to have my self-driving wager come in by commuting to work in a robot car, I knew it was time...
Jan 27, 2019•24 min
Given all the news of layoffs in the digital media space this week, I knew I couldn't sit on this interview with Rafat Ali any longer. Currently the founder and CEO of digital media company Skift—but also, if you weren’t aware, a true digital media pioneer going back to his founding of Paid Content—I knew he could talk about this stuff, and he has a pretty unique perspective on the state of digital media in 2019. TLDR, it’s not good. Dire might even be the word. This episode has a full transcrip...
Jan 26, 2019•21 min
Now the AIs can defeat us at StarCraft II (too?), Zuckerberg wants to unify his collection of messaging apps, my grand unifying theory for the streaming video wars and of course the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Juniper.net/try Metalab.co Links: Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger (NYTimes) Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money (Reveal) Facebook ignored kids’ spending problems, internal documents reveal (BBC News...
Jan 25, 2019•25 min
Bing’s Schrodinger-style China Ban, headphones from Sonos, flying cars from Boeing, layoffs for project Titan, and the serious ongoing layoffs in the digital media world. Sponsors: Lightstream.com/ride Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Stories from: @pkafka, @markgurman Tweets: @stroughtonsmith Links: China Appears to Block Microsoft’s Bing as Censorship Intensifies (NYTimes) Sonos Plans Headphones in Move Outside the Home (Bloomberg) Boeing’s ‘flying car’ lifts off in race to revolutionize urba...
Jan 24, 2019•17 min
YouTube TV goes nationwide, Jony Ive’s dream phone design, Patreon milestones and is Spotify killing music’s middle class? Sponsors: Joybird.com/RIDE ... Promocode RIDE Metalab.co Links: YouTube TV finally goes nationwide almost two years after launch (The Verge) Hulu drops to just $5.99 per month after Netflix’s price hikes (The Verge) Waymo says it will build self-driving cars in Michigan (Reuters) Xiaomi's flexible phone concept folds on both sides (Engadget) Meizu Zero debuts with no physica...
Jan 23, 2019•16 min
Munchery bites the big one, Foxconn considers moving production to India, Netflix wants a seat at the adults table, and, yes, even guitar tech is now tech. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Munchery closes on-demand meal-delivery business (San Francisco Chronicle) Foxconn Looks Beyond China to India for iPhone Assembly (WSJ) Apple Supplier in Japan Looks to Taiwan for Bailout After iPhone XR Letdown (WSJ) Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Ap...
Jan 22, 2019•17 min
The GDPR fines begin, but the EU “link tax” might be in trouble, Uber wants self driving scooters, and why email is back, baby! (Hint: it never left.) Sponsors: Flatironschool.com/podcast Metalab.co Links: French data protection watchdog fines Google $57 million under the GDPR (TechCrunch) Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council (Julia Reda) Uber is exploring autonomous bikes and scooters (TechCrunch) A POKER-PLAYING ROBOT GOES TO WORK FOR THE PENTAGON (Wired) Amazon helped 50,000 SMB...
Jan 21, 2019•15 min
Ali's Medium Post: Land of the Super Founders On this bonus episode, we’re going to revisit a past weekend longread suggestion and talk to the author of that longread to go further in-depth. Do you remember I recommended Land of the Super Founders a medium piece by Ali Tamaseb who spent 300 hours gathering data on unicorn startups to answer the simple question what did billion-dollar startups look like when they were getting started? What common traits did they share? This episode has a full tra...
Jan 20, 2019•23 min
This week had a lot of health tech news in it… a lot of it broken by CNBC’s health tech reporter Christina Farr. So, I reached out to Christina to chat, and we discussed Amazon getting into healthcare—possibly even getting into health insurance—what Apple’s health strategy is, where health tech might go beyond wearables and how the healthcare industry is responding to Silicon Valley invading their turf. This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Squarespace.com/listen Learn more about your ad ...
Jan 19, 2019•18 min
Netflix starts to open up, Cortana stops competing, gadget reviews now include shoes as a category and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Netflix beats on subscriber growth, but misses slightly on revenue — stock falls after hours (CNBC) It’s Official: Satya Nadella Confirms Cortana Defeat (Thurrott) Nike's auto-laced future (TechCrunch) NIKE'S NEW SELF-LACING BASKETBALL SHOE IS ACTUALLY SMART (Wired) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekened Longreads D...
Jan 18, 2019•21 min
Tim Cook calls for a data-broker clearinghouse, a possible criminal case against Huawei, the largest leak of user credentials ever found in the wild, and why we probably need a Unix for machine learning. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia (Facebook Newsroom) You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It (Time) I Mentored Mark Zuckerberg. I Loved Facebook. But I Can't Stay Silent About What's Happening. (Ti...
Jan 17, 2019•18 min
More high profile execs quit Snap, Apple’s in talks to get more Apple Watches in the hands of seniors, the state of the App Economy, and the Razr is coming back to herald in the era of the bendable phone. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome (DataDog's Blog Post on Container Trends) Tiny.website Links: WeWork’s CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork (WSJ) Apple is in talks with private Medicare plans about bringing its watch to at-risk seniors (CNBC) App economy expected to be $120 billion in 2019...
Jan 16, 2019•18 min
Netflix raises prices, maybe the Apple battery replacement WAS a big deal after all, cops can’t force you to unlock your phone with your face, and Amazon is driving its retail competitors into the arms of Microsoft. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Netflix will raise prices for US subscribers, with its most popular plan going up to $13 per month (TechCrunch) Apple Q1 Numbers: Missing Explanations (Monday Note) ON APPLE’S $29 IPHONE BATTERY REPLACEMENT PROGRAM AND ITS ROLE IN TH...
Jan 15, 2019•17 min
