Wed. 05/29 – Did The Secret Sauce Of Google Search Just Leak?

Paging Farmville: Facebook takes another stab at owning mobile gaming. Rupert Murdoch's longstanding wish is granted. Dropbox had longstanding doubts about its erstwhile partner Zoom. More data on the health of tech investing, and the first reviews of the iPad as laptop are… mixed. Sponsors: Plume.com/techmeme Mintmobile.com/ride Links: Facebook to Introduce an App for Gaming (NYTimes) Facebook and Google to face mandatory code of conduct to 'level playing field' with traditional news media (ABC News Australia) Zoom’s Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox (NYTimes) With Shut-In Kids Flocking to Streaming, Disney Channel Retools (Bloomberg) The Q1 2020 Global VC Report: Funding Slowly Impacted By Coronavirus (Crunchbase News) Private Equity Sees $20 Billion of Tech Deals Shelved by Virus (Bloomberg) MAGIC KEYBOARD FOR THE IPAD PRO REVIEW: THE BEST WAY TO TURN AN IPAD INTO A LAPTOP (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Apr 202016min

I wasn’t supposed to do a weekend episode this weekend. I’ve got one scheduled for next week that I still need to record. But a few days ago, I saw Alex Wilhelm at TechCrunch tweet that he was doing a piece about why everyone in Silicon Valley and the VC world and the startup world still seem to be preparing for a nuclear winter, while the stock market has been roaring back to life, and I was like YES! I need to talk about that with somebody right now! I’m asking myself that question every day. It’s not that I’m rooting for a crash, it’s not that I want the economy to suffer, but everyone I know in the Tech world thinks we're in for a bad recession and yet… well, we get into all this. I needed to have this discussion with somebody right away, so forgive me if this is a little self indulgent, but join Alex and I as we ask the question: who’s right about the economy right now? Silicon Valley, or Wall Street? PS: This is Alex's piece I was referring to: As stocks recover, private investors aren't buying the hype Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Apr 202039min

Microsoft has some AI tech that can catch bugs 99% of the time, Y Combinator is going to be more picky about who it invests in, macOS is getting a smarter battery management system for your laptop, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency CognitoHQ.com Links: AI spots critical Microsoft security bugs 97% of the time (VentureBeat) Changing policy, Y Combinator cuts its pro rate stake and makes investments case-by-case (TechCrunch) Google's fast-growing Meet video tool getting Zoom-like layout, Gmail link (Reuters) Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health (Six Colors) Apple CEO Talks Covid-19 Crisis, Return to Work Plan at Company-Wide Meeting (Bloomberg) 'Needle in a haystack': Reborn tech offices may need distance and mass testing (Protocol) The coronavirus pandemic turned Folding@Home into an exaFLOP supercomputer (Ars Technica) Can Comic Books Survive the Coronavirus Era? (NYTimes) LIDAR: Peek Into The Future With iPad Pro (Halide) The Devastating Decline of a Brilliant Young Coder (Wired) In Half-Life’s improv scene, anyone can speak for Gordon Freeman (Ars Technica) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Apr 202018min

The video conferencing space is so hot, we’re getting steamy M&A action now. Apple wants to get stylish with over the ear headphones. Robinhood bucks a couple of trends with a new round. And is Facebook’s Libra just gonna drop like a stone? Sponsors: Kiwico.com/ride DoubleUp.agency Links: Verizon Buys Zoom Conferencing Rival BlueJeans (The Verge) Apple Developing High-End Headphones With Interchangeable Parts (Bloomberg) Sony Plans Limited PlayStation 5 Output in First Year (Bloomberg) Robinhood Is Raising New Funds at About $8 Billion Value, Sources Say (Bloomberg) Google to Slow Hiring for Rest of 2020, CEO Tells Staff (Bloomberg) Facebook-Backed Libra Cryptocurrency Project Is Scaled Back (NYTimes) Amazon Retools With Unusual Goal: Get Shoppers to Buy Less Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (WSJ) Amazon to close French warehouses until next week after court order (Reuters) TikTok now lets parents set restrictions on their kids’ accounts (The Verge) Lawn love job opening: https://apply.workable.com/lawn-love/j/A749319261/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Apr 202016min

Hellooooo new iPhone SE. Airbnb raises another debt round. Amazon kneecaps affiliate marketers. Now it’s Medium’s turn to face fake news (or, at least, fake experts) scrutiny. And why Houseparty is now, officially, another unlikely winner of the Coronavirus moment. Sponsors: CognitoHQ.com BuyRaycon.com/tech Podapalooza tickets at: PLZA.org Links: Apple announces the new $399 iPhone SE for 2020 (The Verge) Airbnb raises another $1bn (Financial Times) Amazon slashes commission rates for program that gives publishers a cut of sales (CNBC) Github is now free for all teams (TechCrunch) Washington AG sues Facebook for violating state political ad law (GeekWire) How Medium became the best and worst place for coronavirus news (The Verge) Houseparty Vies With Zoom to Be Homebound Chatters’ App of Choice (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Apr 202017min

We have an actual smartphone launch event to report on! Google is apparently close to powering it’s devices with its own custom-design silicon. Microsoft Teams is getting closer to Zoom in a good, feature-wise way. An update on the venture funding environment and new gaming ratings to alert people to loot boxes. Sponsors: LinkedIN.com/ride Plume.com/techmeme Links: OnePlus Announces OnePlus 8 & OnePlus 8 Pro: Step-Up 2020 Flagships (AnAndTech) ONEPLUS 8 PRO REVIEW: BIG LEAGUE (The Verge) Q&A: Apple and Google discuss their coronavirus tracing efforts (TechCrunch) iPhone China Shipments Rebound as Manufacturing Resumes (Bloomberg) Scoop: Google readies its own chip for future Pixels, Chromebooks (Axios) Zoom will let paying customers pick which data center their calls are routed from (The Verge) Over 500,000 Zoom accounts sold on hacker forums, the dark web (BleepingComputer) New Microsoft Teams features: Video to show 9 people on screen with more coming soon (ZDNet) Amazon to Expand Shipments of Nonessential Items, Continue Adding Staff (WSJ) VC Firms Raised $21 Billion Last Quarter Despite Pandemic Chaos (Bloomberg) ESRB introduces a new label to indicate that a game has loot boxes (The Verge) Links to job openings: https://botsociety.io/careers/account-manager or info@botsociety.com https://zen.ly/jobs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

14 Apr 202018min

Deeper dives into that Google/Apple contact tracing project, solid rumors about the new iPhone design, the telecom industry might lose $25 billion dollars this year and international roaming charges are to blame, and an open source live streaming and video streaming app that can help you Twitch and YouTube better, without being beholden to their tools. Sponsors: Harrys.com/techmeme F5.com/ride Links: @moxie Tweet Thread How Apple and Google are tackling one of the toughest parts about tracking COVID-19 exposures (The Verge) NHS phone app holds key to lifting UK’s coronavirus lockdown (The Times (UK)) Apple Plans iPad-Like Design for Next iPhone, Smaller HomePod (Bloomberg) SoftBank Group forecasts $7-bn full-year net loss (Yahoo Finance) Son’s $2 Billion Guarantee at Risk as Virus Hits SoftBank Star (Bloomberg) Fall of the roaming empire: telecom groups face revenue loss as travel collapses (Financial Times) As YouTube Traffic Soars, YouTubers Say Pay Is Plummeting (OneZero) ‘It’s still niche’: Esports see audience surge, more tepid ad demand (Digiday) Anyone's a Celebrity Streamer With This Open Source App (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Apr 202018min

I couldn’t tell you the amount of times, over the last two years, I’ve quoted pieces from Alex Kantrowitz on this show. Hundreds of times? Easy? Alex is the senior tech reporter at Buzzfeed News, and, while I don’t have favorite people to quote from on this show (I shouldn’t anyway) the sheer number of times I quote from someone should tell you something about the amount of news they break. The insights they have. Alex has an amazing new book out called Always Day One- How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever. And as I said yesterday, it’s an amazing breakdown of not only the cultural DNA of each of the tech giants, but also a useful playbook to their success… a way to understand how they do what they do and why they win more often than not. Amazing book. Anyone who listens to this show every day will find it useful in informing the competitive analysis we always engage in. Sponsor: Tovala.com/ride Buy the book here! Always Day One - How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay On Top Forever Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

11 Apr 202027min