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

Here was our Twitter Space from this week. We ended up talking all about Coinbase, helped by some great analysis from Romeen Sheth, who I think you’ll recall I quoted from when we talked about this on Wednesday. You can follow Romeen on twitter @RomeenSheth, link in the show notes. And also, he has a great podcast called Square One, where he interviews founders and investors, folks like Anthony Pompliano, Li Jin, David Sacks, even Andrew Yang. Give it a listen, search Square One on your podcast app of choice. Sponsors: Today In Digital Marketing podcast GivingMultiplier.org/techmeme Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 Apr 20211h 18min

The counting is finally happening, and not to be all Nate Silver, but it’s looking fairly certain that Amazon won its big union battle. Apple and Epic Games are making their first arguments in that big lawsuit. A big new scraping hack, this time for half a billion LinkedIn users. Neurolink shows a monkey playing Pong with its brain. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Blockchain.com FundRise.com/techmeme  Links: Partial tally in Amazon union drive favors ‘No’ votes. (NYTimes) Epic v. Apple discovery details ‘Project Liberty’ scheme to skirt App Store with Fortnite (9to5Mac) Apple Admits Purposely Keeping iMessage Off Android Helps Lock Users In (DroidLife) Hackers scraped data from 500 million LinkedIn users — about two-thirds of the platform's userbase — and have posted it for sale online (Insider) Neuralink's brain-computer interface demo shows a monkey playing Pong (Engadget) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Silicon Valley Is Flooding Into a Reluctant Austin (Bloomberg Businessweek) Don’t pick up! The rise and fall of a massive industry based on missed calls (Rest of World) DoorDash Drivers Game Algorithm to Increase Pay (Bloomberg Businessweek) Revenge Of The Winklevii (Forbes) Bill Hwang Had $20 Billion, Then Lost It All in Two Days (Bloomberg Businessweek) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Apr 202119min

If the chip shortage is now biting even Apple, things are getting real, y’all. Twitter apparently took a run at buying Clubhouse. Facebook has a new Clubhouse like product called Hotline. Lenovo’s new phone convinces me gaming phones are truly a thing. And are there signs we’re finally gonna see those Apple AirTags… or do the tea leaves reveal the exact opposite? Sponsors: Calderalab.com code TECHMEME at checkout Blockchain.com Links: MacBook and iPad production delayed as supply crunch hits Apple (NikkeiAsia) Apple MacBook and iPad production may be delayed over global chip shortage (AppleInsider) Twitter Held Discussions for $4 Billion Takeover of Clubhouse (Bloomberg) Facebook tests Hotline, a Q&A product that’s a mashup of Clubhouse and Instagram Live (TechCrunch) Lenovo’s Legion Phone Duel 2 has not one but two cooling fans (The Verge) YouTube is social media’s big winner during the pandemic (CNBC) Uber and Lyft ‘throwing money’ at US drivers to ease shortage (FT) Google I/O 2021 will be virtual and free to attend from May 18-20 (9to5Google) Apple Announces Find My Network With Support for Third-Party Devices (MacRumors) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Apr 202118min

Coinbase has revealed the number behind their business, and they are brain exploding emoji. A big Patreon raise shows the moneybags are serious about this creator economy thing. Nobody is crying at Plaid over that failed Visa merger. There’s a new king of the gaming laptop hill. And I try my best to unravel the twisted tale of the latest Facebook data scandal. Sponsors: Kiwico.com, Promocode ride for 30 percent off Blockchain.com Links: Coinbase Posts Blowout Q1 Profit of $730-$800 Million, Days Before Public Listing (Decrypt) Patreon’s Valuation Triples to $4 Billion as Platform Draws Creators, Fans (WSJ) Clubhouse Discusses Funding at About $4 Billion Value (Bloomberg) Plaid raises $425M Series D from Altimeter as it charts a post-Visa future (TechCrunch) Global Venture Funding Hits All-Time Record High $125B In Q1 2021 (Crunchbase News) Alienware’s M15 R5 is its first AMD-based gaming laptop in over a decade (The Verge) What Really Caused Facebook's 500M-User Data Leak? (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Apr 202118min

Clubhouse isn’t messing around when it comes to flipping the monetization switch. TikTok translation might make that platform even more global. Yahoo Answers circles the drain. Are NFT prices already dropping? And with the new digital Yuan, would the Chinese government be able to literally turn off the money in your wallet? Sponsors: Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Kraken.com/techmeme Links: Clubhouse’s new direct payments let you toss a coin to creators, and they get 100 percent (The Verge) TikTok adds automatic captions to videos in accessibility push (The Verge) Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th (The Verge) The NFT bubble might be bursting already (CNN Business) China Creates Its Own Digital Currency, a First for Major Economy (WSJ) E3 2021 Will Take Place as a Free Virtual Conference, In-Person L.A. Event Targeted for Next Year (Variety) Streaming Services Have Finally Run Out of New Shows. Kind of. (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

6 Apr 202117min

The Supreme Court has ruled on APIs in a way that should make most developers happy. Though, the punted on the President blocking people on Twitter. LG is exiting the smartphone business. And we already knew half a billion people’s Facebook data was out in the wild, but now that we’ve SEEN it in the wild, I’ll tell you why you should take notice. Sponsors: Blockchain.com NewYorker.com/techmeme promocode techmeme Links: Supreme Court rules in Google’s favor in copyright dispute with Oracle over Android software (CNBC) Supreme Court vacates lower court decision on Trump blocking Twitter followers (Axios) LG Electronics to end loss-making smartphone business (NikkeiAsia) Amazon Illegally Fired Activist Workers, Labor Board Finds (NYTimes) 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online (Insider) Is Apple's Privacy Push Facebook's Existential Threat‪?‬ (Kara Swisher's Sway Podcast) Sideloading Apps Would 'Break' the Security and Privacy of iPhone, Says Tim Cook (MacRumors) Tim Cook says Apple is committed to AR, TV+ and privacy but not to Apple Car (Cult of Mac) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Apr 202116min

We didn’t go as long as last time because after about 45 minutes, somehow no one could hear me, even though I was the space commissar, or whatever they term it. Anyway, as you’ll hear, we ended up talking about that big AR story with Microsoft and the HoloLens and the Pentagon. Robert Scoble, who has been on this beat for years showed up serendipitously, to give us some schooling in the space. Enjoy… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

3 Apr 20211h 6min

Coinbase is going public and sharing its numbers ahead of time, which is rare and probably a sign of confidence. The App Store has started rejecting apps ahead of that big new privacy change. Has Tencent’s gaming studio become the biggest in the world? Another Clubhouse clone, this time from Discord. And of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: MasterWorks.io promocode ride GivingMultiplier.org/techmeme Links: Coinbase To Go Public on April 14, Announce Q1 Earnings Beforehand (Decrypt) Apple Rejecting Apps With Fingerprinting Enabled As iOS 14 Privacy Enforcement Starts (Forbes) Apple knew it was selling defective MacBook displays, judge concludes (The Verge) Discord’s new Clubhouse-like feature, Stage Channels, is available now (The Verge) Exclusive: Tencent's Timi gaming studio generated $10 billion in 2020, sources say (Reuters) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: People's Expensive NFTs Keep Vanishing. This Is Why (Motherboard) 5 Years After the Oculus Rift, Where Do VR and AR Go Next? (Wired) How a Chip Shortage Snarled Everything From Phones to Cars (Bloomberg) Why Computers Won’t Make Themselves Smarter (New Yorker) Graphene and Beyond: The Wonder Materials That Could Replace Silicon in Future Tech (WSJ) Turing Award Goes to Creators of Computer Programming Building Blocks (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Apr 202119min