Tech Brew Ride Home

So, today, July 20th 2019 is the 50th anniversary of human beings walking on the moon for the first time. As Glenn mentioned on Friday’s weekend longreads segment, Fast Company has been doing a 50 days to the moon thing. 50 different stories around the moon landing. They’re all from Charles Fishman, who wrote a book that came out this summer called One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon. Please buy that book if you want a super great summer long read, literal longread. But also, listen to this conversation with Charles discussing amazing stories about the moon landing that I for sure never knew, and 100% blew my mind… Sponsors: MarketingByMoe.com Castro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Jul 201938min

Microsoft makes boring pay dividends, Trump says he’ll use JEDI mind tricks to examine a Pentagon bid, Orlando ends a controversial facial-recognition test with Amazon, and your weekend long read suggestions. Sponsors Castro Fireside Links: Microsoft beats on earnings, stock ticks up (CNBC) Trump says he’s looking into a Pentagon cloud contract for Amazon or Microsoft because ‘we’re getting tremendous complaints’ (CNBC) Republican lawmakers urge Trump not to delay the $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract Amazon and Microsoft want (CNBC) Orlando cancels Amazon Rekognition program, capping 15 months of glitches and controversy (Orlando Weekly) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: 50 Days to the Moon (Fast Company) Is It Okay to Laugh at Florida Man? (Washington Post) TikTok Stars Are Preparing to Take Over the Internet (The Atlantic) Grindr Wanted To Make The World Better For Queer People. Then A Chinese Gaming Company Bought It. (Buzzfeed) Andy Ngo Has The Newest New Media Career. It’s Made Him A Victim And A Star (Buzzfeed) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Jul 201916min

Netflix's growth disappoints, but Stranger Things have happened. The Democratic National Committee tells candidates to avoid the photo-aging simulator FaceApp. Don't expect driverless cars any time soon, despite the hype. Can 5G networks give you cancer? No, no they can't. Finally, go ahead! Start that podcast. Don't listen to the naysayers. Sponsors: SVB.com/next Castro Links: Netflix subscription adds disappoint, stock drops (Variety) DNC warns candidates to stop using FaceApp, citing Russian danger (CNN) FaceApp developer describes privacy policy (TechCrunch) Tesla's plans for self-driving cars worry those who know best (Washington Post) Self-driving cars remains "way in the future" (New York Times) The 5G Health Hazard That Isn't (New York Times) Have we hit peak podcast? (New York Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Jul 201916min

Google says Project Dragonfly is dead, Apple might be producing its own original podcasts, the Switch regular gets a refresh, and two long-time interesting companies: Neuralink and Boston Dynamics are ready for the spotlight. Sponsors: Castro SVB.com/next Links: Antitrust: Commission opens investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct of Amazon (The European Commission) A Google VP Told The US Senate The Company Has “Terminated” The Chinese Search App Dragonfly (BuzzFeed News) Apple Plans to Bankroll Original Podcasts to Fend Off Rivals (Bloomberg) New Nintendo Switch model will have much better battery life (Polygon) Microsoft wins multibillion-dollar cloud deal from AT&T (CNBC) Elon Musk’s Neuralink Takes Baby Steps to Wiring Brains to the Internet (NYTimes) BOSTON DYNAMICS’ ROBOTS ARE PREPARING TO LEAVE THE LAB — IS THE WORLD READY? (The Verge) Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks (BBC News) Get a podcast classified of your own. CLASSIFIED: Should users be allowed to gain value from the location data their friends share with them? Even if it's non-monetary value? If not, why not? We have created an experiment to probe into these questions. Our experiment is an app that allows users to collect and analyze hundreds of location data points that are currently being shared with them by their friends, but are not collected. When this data is collected and analyzed properly, users can gain insights on their friends' behavior, much like companies gain insight on everyone else's behavior by collecting or buying this data in bulk. We are looking for one journalist to cover this exclusively, and we figured the Techmeme ride home would be our best bet. We intend to shed some more light on privacy inconsistencies. If you are interested in this, please email us at press@whosintown.app, that is press @ whosintown dot app Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Jul 201918min

Facebook explains Libra to Congress, Amazon might be next in the EU’s woodshed, Google might be next in Trump’s woodshed, another Tesla lineup shakeup, a couple of interesting raises and Microsoft opens Windows up to all your digital assistants. Sponsors: SVB.com/next Firesideconf.com/ride Links: Senators aren’t sold on Facebook’s Libra project (The Verge) Highlights from Facebook's Libra Senate hearing (TechCrunch) Facebook Cryptocurrency Plans Have a Problem: Facebook’s Reputation (NYTimes) Amazon in EU Crosshairs as Vestager Fights Big Tech to the End (Bloomberg) Trump threatens to ‘take a look’ at Google for China ties (Washington Post) Silicon Valley’s Right Wing Is Angry And Punching Back (BuzzFeed News) Tesla updates pricing and options across lineup, discontinues several variants (Electrek) Newsletter platform Substack raises $15.3M round led by a16z (TechCrunch) Patreon raises $60M Series D, targets international growth and more customization (TechCrunch) Subscribe to the ad-free feed! Order up your own podcast classified! Podcast Classifieds: Are you a podcaster looking for an easy and affordable way to upload and share your podcast that doesn’t take a lot of time? Are you a church or ministry looking to share sermons or other content with your followers? JustCast turns your Dropbox into podcast hosting and is the easiest way to share to the web and iTunes.  With hosting solutions starting at no cost and with other very affordable hosting tiers,  JustCast is here for you. JustCast takes the hosting headaches away and gives you the ability to spend more time focusing on creating and perfecting your content. It’s the simplest way to create RSS feed for your podcast. JustCast is one of those technologies that will change your life. You’ll never remember what you did before JustCast!  Check it out at www.justcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Jul 201918min

The FTC is readying a record fine for Facebook, but is it just a parking ticket? Qualcomm refreshes the Snapdragon lineup, governments want to make money off of selling your data also, Microsoft Office quietly winning in mobile, and the Air Force warns: do NOT storm Area 51! Sponsors: Rhone.com/ride Promocode RIDE for 20% off! Firesideconf.com/ride Links: FTC Approves Roughly $5 Billion Facebook Settlement (WSJ) YouTube's Trampled Foes Plot Antitrust Revenge (Bloomberg) Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 Plus chip is built for gaming and VR (Engadget) I-Team: Florida DMV sells your personal information to private companies, marketing firms (ABC Action News) Microsoft Word for Android has been installed more than 1 billion times (The Verge) Microsoft Word passes 1 billion installs on Play Store (Android Police) Who Needs Amazon HQ2? Not New York Real Estate’s Tech Boom (WSJ) AT&T to auto block fraud robocalls for free, but blocking spam calls will cost extra (ZDNet) Facebook-Driven Area 51 Storming May Be Countered With Force, Says US Air Force (Deadline) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Jul 201919min

Remember that longread from Friday? I knew lots of physical retail was under threat from ecommcerce, but do we have to worry about the grocery store too? As I said, this was something I’ve never considered. So read the piece because I got in touch with the author, Joe Fassler to see what the story is. And yes, there are larger societal and cultural and even cyclical shifts imperiling the traditional grocery market, but yes, it’s tech and ecommerce too. A deeper dive into all this, plus at look at the star of Joe’s piece, the grocery store architect who is trying to blow up the grocery in order to save it. The man who’s going to save your neighborhood grocery store (The New Food Economy) Sponsors: CognitoHQ.com Stamps.com, click on the Microphone at the TOP of the homepage and type in RIDE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Jul 201928min

Remember the whole Superhuman kerfuffle of the last week or so? Mike Davidson wrote a blog post calling out some shady stuff in the Superhuman email product, all of silicon valley debated it, Superhuman walked things back a bit, and actually, I didn’t mention this, but Mike had a second post about this, which was even more in depth an eloquent than the first one. So, I reached out to Mike to talk about this whole thing, not because I wanted to re-litigate it, but because I wanted to poke at… well, what I said last week… what does this whole debate say about the discourse in tech at the moment? Mike's 2nd post on this that I didn't mention on the podcast Sponsors: Wix.com/podcast Capterra.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Jul 201930min