Thu. 03/07 – The Epic/Apple Fight Gets Gnarly

One of those new Meta Quest headsets just happens to have been found in the wild. New Roku gear. Starbucks announces an NFT project. A spinoff Google Moonshot that might be the next generation networking gear. And is TikTok in the crosshairs again, and this time, not just for the US government? Sponsors: Zengo.com/ride code: ride Medcline.com/techmeme Links: ‘Quest Pro’ video shows Meta’s next VR headset a month before its launch event (The Verge) New Linux malware combines unusual stealth with a full suite of capabilities (ArsTechnica) Starbucks details its blockchain-based loyalty platform and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey (TechCrunch) Roku to Launch ‘The Buzz’ Short-Form Content Hub on Home Screen, Refreshes $30 Streaming Device (Variety) Google’s Loon Project Gets Resurrected. Without Google. Or Balloons (Bloomberg) TikTok’s Secret To Explosive Growth? ‘Billions And Billions Of Dollars’ Says Snap CEO Evan Spiegel (Forbes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Sep 202218min

Is the US government about to legally curtail proof of work crypto projects? Intel’s big new GPU specs. Uber Eats signs a deal to get into the ankle bots business. What I believe is the oldest startup ever to be acquired by a tech giant. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataTribe.com, enter by Sept. 23 Ramp.com/techmeme Links: White House report proposes possible restrictions on proof-of-work crypto mining (The Block) Intel Reveals Specifications For Arc Alchemist Desktop GPUs (Tom's Hardware) Uber Eats and Nuro sign a 10-year deal to do robot food delivery in California and Texas (The Verge) Amazon is buying Cloostermans, a mechatronics specialist in Belgium, to ramp up its robotics operations (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: With Stable Diffusion, you may never believe what you see online again (ArsTechnica) They built a Minecraft crypto empire. Then it all came crashing down (Rest of World) Inside the World's First No-Coiner Conference (Decrypt) Just a Few People Crowned Some of YouTube’s Earliest Hits (The Atlantic) The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse (The Guardian) Apple's features graveyard: Once heavily marketed, now gone (Apple Insider) The ‘deaditors’ of Wikipedia (HayKranen.nl) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Sep 202217min

Disney’s former CEO throws another lifeline to Elon Musk in his Twitter suit. Crypto folks are suing the US Treasury over an important crypto precedent. Why the current YC batch is still crypto heavy. A very interesting crypto raise. And a deeper look at the iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island. Sponsors: Split.io/techmeme Links: Why Disney didn’t buy Twitter (Vox) Coinbase employees and Ethereum backers sue U.S. Treasury over Tornado Cash sanctions (Fortune) Legendary China Bets Unwind as Buffett, SoftBank Sell (Bloomberg) Y Combinator is doubling down on crypto founders despite market volatility (TechCrunch) Mysten Labs, creator of the Sui blockchain, closes $300 million raise led by FTX Ventures (The Block) How the iPhone 14 Pro Transforms Blank Screen Space Into Something Actually Useful (CNET) Apple might have fixed the notch by putting it on an island (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Sep 202217min

All the headlines from Apple’s Far Out iPhone event. Not to be outdone, details on the next Google Pixel event and Meta Quest Pro events. Ring brings end to end encryption to all its hardware. And for the first time in history, an alleged cyberattack has led to a severing of diplomatic ties. Sponsors: Go.Factor75.com/techmeme130 and code techmeme130 for $130 off CyberSecurityInside.com/ride Links: The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are official with satellite-based Emergency SOS (The Verge) iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max announced with animated notches and always-on displays (The Verge) The Apple Watch Ultra is finally here (The Verge) Apple’s new AirPods Pro can cancel twice as much noise (The Verge) Google confirms Pixel 7 series will run on new ‘Tensor G2’ chip (9to5Google) Meta Connect Is A One-Day Virtual Event On October 11th (UploadVR) Ring finally brings end-to-end encryption to its flagship video doorbells (The Verge) Albania cuts diplomatic ties with Iran over July cyberattack (APNews) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Sep 202219min

Pretty high priority zero-day to tell you about. Is Binance about to upend the stablecoin market with its muscle? When your electrical utility takes over your smart thermostat. And how that rumored always on iPhone display might work in practice. Sponsors: Online.UC.edu Babbel.com/ride Links: Google Chrome emergency update fixes new zero-day used in attacks (BleepingComputer) Binance, Issuer of Third-Biggest Stablecoin, to Stop Supporting Larger Rival USDC (CoinDesk) CVS Makes $8 Billion Bet on the Return of the House Call (NYTimes) Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during 'energy emergency' (Denver7) Ahead of iPhone 14 event, Brazil suspends iPhone sales without power brick and fines Apple (9to5Mac) iPhone 14 Pro's Always-On Display Behavior in iOS 16 Allegedly Revealed Days Ahead of Unveiling (MacRumors) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Sep 202216min

Talking the state of Snap, Substack, and the creator economy generally, with @kyurieff, @simonowens, @MattNavarra, @corinne_podger & @BullishStudio! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 Sep 20221h 38min

The iPhone install base has surpassed the Android install base in the US for the first time basically since Android began. Apple settled with a developer for the first time any of us can remember. Meta signs a VR chip deal with Qualcomm. The really good and really annoying bits of the new USB standard. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: Apple overtakes Android to pass 50% share of smartphones used in US (Financial Times) Apple settles lawsuit with developer over App Store rejections and scams (TechCrunch) Meta, Qualcomm sign pact on custom virtual reality chips (Reuters) Next-gen USB promises to be twice as fast, using cables you may already own (The Verge) More USB-C speed won't fix users' problems with cables (Apple Insider) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: An Apple Watch for Your 5-Year-Old? More Parents Say Yes. (NYTimes) Interview: Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum (Noahpinion) Exploring 12 Million of the 2.3 Billion Images Used to Train Stable Diffusion’s Image Generator (Waxy.org) The Rise of Tech Blogs in the Mid-2000s (Nirit Weiss-Blatt) Kids Yell “Poop” At Alexa, And These Musicians Profit (BuzzFeed) AMAZON’S THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER IS SMALL-SCREEN HIGH FANTASY DONE RIGHT (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Sep 202217min

At long last, an edit button has come to Twitter. Nvidia and AMD say the US has imposed restrictions on exporting chips for AI-related applications to Russia and China. How Apple is gonna handle its new holepunch configuration. Disney wants its own Prime. And an AI art-creation bot you can try, right now, for free. Links: Twitter starts testing an edit button, but you have to pay for it (The Verge) Nvidia, AMD warned of new US export restrictions on AI chips (Protocol) Source: iPhone 14 Pro display cutout to show camera plus microphone privacy indicators; redesigned Camera app also coming (9to5Mac) Disney Explores Membership Program Like Amazon Prime to Offer Discounts and Perks (WSJ) Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 2 is bigger, better, and way more powerful (XDA Developers) An AI-Generated Artwork Won First Place at a State Fair Fine Arts Competition, and Artists Are Pissed (Motherboard) Stable Diffusion is a really big deal (Simon Willison's Weblog) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 Sep 202217min