58% of global e-commerce is concentrated in just six companies. And just four Chinese companies account for almost half of global digital sales. Global e-commerce reached $3.4 trillion last year, according to a new report from Activate Consulting. Thousands of brands and retailers divvy up just 37% share of that, while six giants who are mostly Chinese companies vacuum up more than half of the pie. The Forbes story for this episode is here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/21/44...
Oct 22, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 123
Cinnamon is a new video platform with a couple of unique features. First, you get paid for videos you upload. Second, it happens without ads. And third, it plans to bridge the gap between creators and viewers with a technology called Shorts that makes creators out of consumers. To get the scoop, we’re chatting with the CEO, Róbert Tarabčák.
Oct 20, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 122
Apple is removing a browser app from the App Store that allows people to play Stadia, Google’s streaming game service, according to the developer. “My app is being removed from the App Store,” Zachary Knox tweeted today about his Stadium Full Screen Browser app. “I was ‘extending WebKit’ by hooking it into the native GameController framework and thus Bluetooth controllers, which they didn’t like.” The full story for this episode is on Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/1...
Oct 20, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 121
Can the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool clean your air from smoke and soot? That’s what I have been testing for parts of the past few months during the western fires that hit California, Oregon, and Washington State. They’ve been banished from the news cycle thanks to the impending election, but the fires this summer were devastating, horrific, and massive. When you can’t breathe safely, few other things in life matter. The Forbes story for this podcast episode is here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnko...
Oct 19, 2020•9 min•Season 1Ep. 120
Should social media censor free speech? Something fairly unprecedented happened this past week: Facebook and Twitter both blocked a NY Post story. Now … whatever you think about that story (and I think it’s pretty flimsy) blocking it almost immediately is pretty shocking. How should social media deal with controversial subjects … or false information? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Bill Ottman, founder and CEO of the open source social network Minds.com, about what ...
Oct 17, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 119
Do we now have near real-time gene sequencing? And if so … what does that unlock? In this edition of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with Dr Roel Wuyts, principal scientist at IMEC and a professor at KU Leuven about gene sequencing, which used to take a lot of time. Remember the Human Genome project? It started October 1, 1990 and completed in April 2003. Now there’s a way of sequencing a whole genome in just 10 minutes for some sequences and a few hours for a whole human genome, which shou...
Oct 15, 2020•14 min•Season 1Ep. 118
You might think the iPhone 12 starts at one dollar under $800. You might even have a distinct memory of seeing a price that looked suspiciously like $799 during the Apple special event yesterday. And you’d be right on one of those two beliefs. (The latter.) This story is live on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/14/no-the-iphone-12-doesnt-actually-cost-799/
Oct 15, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 117
We watched almost 7.5 billion hours of live streaming content in the last three months, up 92% from last year. Amazingly, just one company owns a massive 91.1% share of all the hours streamed: the Amazon-owned Twitch. So Twitch is definitely the 900-pound gorilla of the live-streaming category. Or it is it? This story is published on Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/07/livestreaming-youtube-facebook-destroy-twitch-in-at-least-one-critical-category/...
Oct 13, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Could Apple and Google soon be two of the most important companies in health? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we chat with former Apple CEO John Sculley, who has invested in multiple health tech companies. Apple owns the most popular healthtech wearable on the planet, and Google bought Fitbit to compete. Both are investing in health, fitness, and wellness technology. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook has even said that Apple’s greatest contribution to history will be in the field of hea...
Oct 09, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 114
In the stone ages of mobile a couple of years ago, you actually had to tap on an app icon and open an app in order to access its functionality. While backwards, onerous, and tedious, this ensured that if I was ordering Air Jordans from Shoe Giant #1 or a Big Mac from Ronald McDonald, I would have at least a couple of interactions with the Nike brand or McDonalds. Now, now so much. This story is live at Forbes here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/10/08/developers-google-siri-alexa...
Oct 09, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Drone deliveries won’t be common until we figure out distributed charging. But maybe … we already have ... In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Leonid Plekhanov from Global Energy Transmission (GET). GET has a last-mile in-air fast charging solution for drones (and another for undersea drones). Amazon’s been touting drone delivery for years. And this summer, Domino’s delivered a pizza to a customer on the beach via drone. But really, no-one's doing this at scale. With the ability to charge...
Oct 08, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Is the future of robotics in the cloud? In this episode of TechFirst we're chatting with and Amazon exec, AWS Robotics general manager Roger Barga, about how Amazon’s “fake” robots are making real robots smarter, faster. We’re seeing more and more robots in manufacturing, services, hospitality, and almost every other industry ... but there are still huge gaps in software to run and manage and coordinate all our robots and drones. Amazon's reducing the cost to train, test and deploy robots by a f...
Oct 06, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 111
Health and fitness apps are winning the Covid-19 era, thanks to closed gyms. But a certain kind of health and fitness app is winning mobile, according to a new report from Apptopia. “Six out of ten of the top Health & Fitness apps are apps that offer video workouts or video-guided exercises,” Apptopia says. “If non-workout apps like Calm, Headspace, and Flo were not included here, the ratio of video to non-video fitness apps would be even greater.” This story is currently live at Forbes here...
Oct 06, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Can you share personal photos online … without sharing your face with the giant global database that is the internet? And, can you share photos of crowds of people, or demonstrations, without subjecting everyone in those photos to AI-driven searches and privacy violations? Brighter AI thinks they have a solution, and in this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with the CEO, Marian Glaeser. Essentially, his technology replaces every face with an AI-generated substitute to ensure you ...
Oct 02, 2020•15 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Are 50 million YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch creators the new founders? And … are they far more numerous and economically important than we think? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier we’re chatting with Yuanling Yuan (AKA YY), a senior associate at SignalFire. She recently did a massive study of the creator economy, finding that of the more than 50 million “creators” in the world on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok, two million of them are professionals, earning...
Oct 01, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 108
There’s now a Google TV as well as an Apple TV. A new Chromecast. Google Home is now Nest Audio, and there are now new Google Pixel smartphones. Google released not quite a googolplex of new consumer hardware and software services today in its “Launch Night In” event. Here’s a rundown ... My post on Forbes, with pictures: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/30/everything-google-announced-including-pixel-4a-5g-pixel-5-google-tv-chromecast-nest-audio/
Oct 01, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Imagine the perfect custom talk radio station tailored exactly to your unique likes, with a never-ending flow of great content. That’s exactly what Apple could soon be delivering with its recent podcasting acquisition, Scout FM. Because that’s precisely what Apple has achieved already — in the music sense — with its new personalized music stations in iOS 14. Get the story in my Forbes column here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/25/heres-how-apple-could-use-new-podcasting-acqui...
Sep 29, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 106
I was not a fan of App Clips when Apple announced them for iOS 14. And wow ... was I wrong. This story is also available in my Forbes column here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/28/apples-ios-14-app-clips-seemed-stupid-theyre-awesome/ And, usually, transcripts show up on my personal site here: https://johnkoetsier.com
Sep 28, 2020•5 min•Season 1Ep. 105
I happened to see my wife’s screen time analytics on her phone recently. She’s spending an average of over seven hours a day on her phone. And she’s not alone. Apparently, I'm not too far behind, when you add in time from other screen, watching sports and a few TV shows. Full story: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/09/26/global-online-content-consumption-doubled-in-2020/
Sep 26, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 104
Amazon's new flying home security drone does not have lasers. Nor can you mount a gun on it, much to the dismay of many, apparently. But will you buy it? To chat about the Ring Always Home Cam and Amazon’s other announcements we have repeat guest Brian Jackson, who is an analyst, researcher, and consultant with the Info-Tech Research Group.
Sep 25, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 103
A week ago Facebook announced it was working with Ray-Ban on a multi-year deal to build and ship smartglasses. Mark Zuckerberg says they’re “the next step on the road to augmented reality glasses.” So why does Irena Cronin say they fail? She is the CEO of Infinite Retina, an xR consultancy, and a co-author of "The Infinite Retina: Spatial Computing, Augmented Reality, and how a collision of new technologies are bringing about the next tech revolution." We chat about Facebook's smartglasses, Proj...
Sep 25, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 102
Want to work at Tesla? Apple? Reddit? Netflix? You’re not alone. Most people want to work for a company that is doing amazing work in the forefront of their field. And while we typically think of a brand as something that is relevant to customers and buyers, it’s also critically important to companies that are looking to hire the best available talent. So Hired surveyed 4,100 tech professionals about the companies they most want to work for ... and I chat with two tech execs about the results. I...
Sep 23, 2020•23 min•Season 1Ep. 101
This is episode 100! Thank you so much for subscribing to TechFirst. I very much appreciate it. In a year we've taken this podcast to a top-100 podcast in the tech category in the U.S., and much higher in some other countries (#4 in Austria!) :-) That's because of you, and what you've done. Thank you! I've decided to celebrate by doing a 100th-episode giveaway ... check the details in the podcast. And, let's connect wherever you're online: Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier LinkedIn: http...
Sep 23, 2020•8 min•Season 1Ep. 100
iOS 14 is a game-changer in more than a few ones. One of them is definitely privacy. I've been writing a lot about privacy, Apple, and what Apple's been doing with the IDFA (identifier for advertisers), so I was invited to speak at the Mobile Growth Summit about it. Here we talk about what's changing, why, what the implications are, and what Google will do as a result. What I chat about: Why Apple made the change What's dangerous about IDFAs What motives might be behind Apple's decision besides ...
Sep 21, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 99
Is iOS 14 fundamentally changing what kinds of apps can be successful? And … with iOS 14 … is Apple building a fundamentally different future for software? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Nick Hobbs, the former head of Google’s iOS app. Hobbs says that iOS 14 is fundamentally different and that it will benefit certain kinds of apps while de-prioritizing others. We chat about when Google's traffic from iOS massively dropped, and what will happen this time with games,...
Sep 18, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 98
Literally five minutes ago I updated to the new version of Safari, version 14. Then I browsed Forbes, hit up Techmeme, checked Twitter briefly, went to Fox News (first time, I think), clicked over to Slashdot, and finally read a story on ZDNet. Oh, and I checked for a picture for this story on Unsplash. In that five minutes, Safari prevented 90 trackers from profiling me. Let me repeat that. Five minutes, 90 trackers. Read this story in my Forbes column: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier...
Sep 17, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 97
Could smart contact lenses grant millions the gift of sight? In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier with chat with Andrés Vásquez Quintero, a professor at Ghent University in Belgium, where researchers have just presented an artificial iris embedded in a smart contact lens. It has an artificial iris, an all-day battery, an on-board ASIC, or application-specific integrated circuit, and a very small LCD screen. And it can do very basic augmented reality for people with limited vision. PLE...
Sep 17, 2020•11 min•Season 1Ep. 96
I used to think that Apple Music was an enormous treasure chest filled with amazing things that you could never really get out. And I used to think that Spotify’s biggest advantage over Apple Music was not its free tier, but its user experience and playlists. Not any more.
Sep 16, 2020•4 min•Season 1Ep. 95
Consumer Report says extensive testing on Tesla’s “full self-driving” capability shows that it falls short of its name, isn’t worth the $8,000 price tag, and actually makes Tesla drivers less safe. “Tesla has repeatedly rolled out crude beta features, some of which can put people’s safety at risk and shouldn’t be used anywhere but on a private test track or proving ground,” says William Wallace, manager of safety policy for Consumer Reports. Get the full details in this episode of TechFirst with...
Sep 14, 2020•6 min•Season 1Ep. 94
It’s been a little challenging to get fitness equipment lately, hasn’t it? Scammers have noticed too. That’s why there’s been a proliferation of scammy-looking fitness product ads on Facebook lately. I’ve personally seen literally dozens of ads for fake Bowflex products, often from “stores” with unpronounceable names and obscure but extremely similar websites. So I bought some fake Bowflex weight from a fake store. And here's what happened ...
Sep 12, 2020•10 min•Season 1Ep. 93
