Tue. 04/23 – Microsoft’s Own LLMs and Perplexity’s Big Raise

Not an exchange blowing up, but is one of the biggest crypto projects in recent years losing developers and maybe entering a death spiral? More supply chain worries for Apple in China. More concerns about the accuracy and efficacy of our new AI bot overlords. And heads up about the new tech hotness from China. Say hello to Temu. It might be responsible for some of the presents you unwrapped recently. Sponsors: Storyblok.com/ridehome Links: Solana’s Top NFT Projects DeGods and Y00ts to Migrate Chains (CoinDesk) Apple’s business under growing threat from China’s Covid wave (Financial Times) Study finds AI assistants help developers produce code that's more likely to be buggy (The Register) IRS Delays $600 Tax Reporting Rule for Venmo, Etsy Sellers (Bloomberg) American Bargain Hunters Flock to a New Online Platform Forged in China (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Dec 202218min

SBF is in the US just in time to see two of his lieutenants have flipped on him to the Feds. Twitter rolls out Cashtags that are actually useful. ChatGPT lead to a “code red” at Google. Justice is coming for those expiring car warranty robo callers. And, surprise, the weekend longreads suggestions. Links: Two Bankman-Fried colleagues plead guilty to fraud (Washington Post) Twitter adds BTC and ETH price indexes to search function (CoinTelegraph) A New Chat Bot Is a ‘Code Red’ for Google’s Search Business (NYTimes) YouTube Paying Roughly $2 Billion a Year for NFL Sunday Ticket (WSJ) FCC proposes record $300 million fine against auto warranty robocall campaign (CyberScoop) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How TikTok Became a Diplomatic Crisis (NYTimes) How the algorithm tipped the balance in Ukraine (Washington Post) Bob Gottlieb Is the Last of the Publishing Giants The 91-year-old editor waits for his 87-year-old star writer, Robert Caro, to turn in his book. (Vulture) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Dec 202217min

A new prediction for 2023, the sports streaming wars. What’s with all the weirdness going on with Anker’s security cameras? Is Apple going to cancel the iPhone SE? Is the Google/Facebook ad duopoly over? And an interesting raise for a deepfake startup. Sponsors: Storyblok.com/ridehome InternetSociety.org/techmeme Links: Google’s YouTube in Talks for Rights to NFL Sunday Ticket (WSJ) Anker’s Eufy breaks its silence on security cam security (The Verge) Kuo: Apple to Cancel or Postpone 2024 iPhone SE 4 (MacRumors) Slow fade for Google and Meta's ad dominance (Axios) OpenAI releases Point-E, an AI that generates 3D models (TechCrunch) ‘South Park’ Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone Land $20 Million in Funding for Their Deepfake VFX Studio (Variety) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

21 Dec 202215min

Amazon settles two EU antitrust cases. An old crypto mystery resurfaces and dormant wallets spring back to life. TikTok will tell you why they recommended that video. Is growth at Mastadon a flood or a trickle? And Coinbase is now worth less than Doge. Sponsors: Storyblok.com/ridehome Microsoft's Worklab Podcast Links: Amazon Agrees to Settle EU Antitrust Cases, Avoiding Fines (WSJ) Bitcoin Addresses Tied to Defunct Canadian Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX Wake Up (CoinDesk) TikTok’s new feature will tell you why a particular video appeared in your For You feed (TechCrunch) Apple to start making MacBooks in Vietnam by mid-2023 (NikkeiAsia) Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier Was Its Least Popular Plan, Analytics Firm Estimates (WSJ) More than two million users have flocked to Mastodon since Elon Musk took over Twitter (The Verge) Magna to Buy Veoneer Vehicle Safety Unit for $1.5 Billion (Bloomberg) Silicon Valley start-ups race for debt deals in funding crunch (FT) Coinbase’s Value Is $1 Billion Below ‘Joke’ Token Dogecoin’s (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Dec 202217min

I dunno. Is Elon not the head of Twitter anymore? He posted a poll, people voted for him to step down. Who knows? I’ll give you the tick tock of what went down this weekend. ? Apple has canceled work on an M2 “extreme” chip. Google goes all in on encrypting Gmail. Why is everyone all in on encryption all of the sudden? And don’t worry, Meta is still all in on the metaverse. Sponsors: Masterclass.com/ride ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors (The Verge) Google is letting businesses try out client-side encryption for Gmail (The Verge) Binance.US to Buy Voyager Assets in $1.022 Billion Deal (Bloomberg) Bankman-Fried is ready to ‘face the music,’ prison official says (Washington Post) Apple Scales Back High-End Mac Pro Plans, Weighs Production Move to Asia (Bloomberg) Facebook’s Meta Will Devote 20% of Costs to Metaverse Next Year (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Dec 202216min

Emergency bonus episode! Is this the moment for Twitter alternatives? T2.social is one of them and the founder of that project, @gabor, joins us to kick it all around. So does our friend Alex Kantrowitz from @BigTechnology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Dec 202251min

Elon Musk has once again proven that the flesh is weak because there’s a new Twitter controversy and I can’t help but tell you about it. Is it a good look when the accounting firm writing reports to prove crypto companies are solvent says it will no longer work with crypto companies? Is Netflix’s ad-supported tier not signing up as many eyeballs as advertisers hoped? And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Sponsors: InternetSociety.org/techmeme Storyblok.com/ridehome Links: Twitter suspends Mastodon’s account and bans links to Mastodon servers (TechCrunch) Twitter suspends journalists who have been covering Elon Musk and the company (NBCNews) Accountant That Vetted Binance Reserves Halts Crypto Work (Bloomberg) Netflix lets advertisers take their money back after missing viewership targets (Digiday) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Spotify’s grand plan to monetize developers via its open source Backstage project (TechCrunch) YouTube Stars Cash In Video Rights for Millions of Dollars (WSJ) ChatGPT and the Imagenet moment (Ben Evans) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Dec 202218min

I’ll get into the whole Twitter banning private jet tracking accounts thing, but use that to explain how and even if we’re going to cover this whole Elon/Twitter story going forward. Is mobile gaming the latest domino to fall in this year of “line also goes down?” A new consortium hopes to make mapping data better. And let me introduce you to the Battery Belt, every bit as important as the whole onshoring the chip industry trend. Links: Twitter Suspends the Accounts Tracking Musk’s Jet and The Man Behind It (Bloomberg) Twitter Suspends Over 25 Accounts That Track Billionaires’ Private Planes (NYTimes) Elon Musk offloads another $3.6bn of Tesla stock (FT) FTX Investor Impact: Timeline of Realized Cryptocurrency Gains and Losses Shows FTX Hit Investor Wallets Less Than Previous Crises (Chainalysis) 2022 will go down as the worst year for U.S. IPOs since 1990. (Axios Pro Rata) Mobile games market to decline for first time in over a decade (FT) Creating the ultimate smart map with new map data initiative launched by Linux Foundation (VentureBeat) 1 big thing: The "battery belt" widens (Axios) The electric car Battery Belt is reshaping America’s heartland (Axios) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Dec 202219min