Fri. 03/21 – A Look At LibGen
That whole thing with Meta allegedly scraping all the world’s books using LibGen is back in the news. Cloudflare is fighting AI scraping with AI slop. A super interesting executive shakeup at Apple. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Sponsors: FreshBooks.com Links: The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem (The Atlantic) Cloudflare builds an AI to lead AI scraper bots into a horrible maze of junk content (The Register) Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri (Bloomberg) Gmail rolling out AI-powered ‘Most relevant’ search update (9to5Google) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How the AI Boom Created the Most Valuable Monopolies in History (Bloomberg) One Man’s Crypto Windfall Is Funding a $1 Billion Space Station Dream (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 Mars 202517min
Thu. 03/20 – Is Apple In Its “Vista” Era?
SoftBank acquires a chip making startup. Nvidia says it hasn’t been approached to help save Intel. OpenAI announces another expensive AI tier. Apple TV+ is losing more than a billion dollars a year. And do Apple’s recent stumbles indicate their where Microsoft was in the Windows Vista era? Sponsors: Incogni.com/ridehome and code ridehome Links: SoftBank Seals $6.5 Billion Deal for Chip Designer Ampere (Bloomberg) Nvidia CEO says company has not been asked to buy a stake in Intel (Reuters) Nvidia to spend hundreds of billions on US supply chain, says chief (FT) A First Look at How Apple’s C1 Modem Performs With Early Adopters (Ookla) OpenAI’s o1-pro is the company’s most expensive AI model yet (TechCrunch) Apple Streaming Losses Top $1 Billion a Year (The Information) Apple innovation and execution (Benedict Evans) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 Mars 202516min
Wed. 03/19 – Nvidia Wants To Change All Of Computing
The EU Commission has brought the hammer down on Apple and Google at the same time. All the big news from Nvidia’s big event yesterday. More details on that Google/Wiz deal. Two new Pebble smartwatches and Google’s new entry-level Pixel… that you can’t preorder yet. Sponsors: MackWeldon.com and promocode BRIAN Links: EU sends Apple first DMA interoperability instructions for apps and connected devices (TechCrunch) Google Search charged with breaking EU antitrust rules (The Verge) Nvidia announces Blackwell Ultra and Rubin AI chips (CNBC) The key takeaways from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote (SiliconAngle) NVIDIA GTC 2025 – Built For Reasoning, Vera Rubin, Kyber, CPO, Dynamo Inference, Jensen Math, Feynman (SemiAnalysis) Google's $32 billion deal for Wiz accelerated under Trump, sources say (Reuters) The first new Pebble smartwatches are coming later this year (The Verge) The Pixel 9A is a midrange phone that actually looks like a good deal (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19 Mars 202517min
Tue. 03/18 – The Big M&A Test I Was Waiting For
We get that first big test of M&A I was looking for as Alphabet acquires Wiz. Is Roku going to force us to watch ads just to turn on our TVs? The AI coding assistant space continues to be hot. The breakthrough in electric vehicle charging that could really change the game. And what exactly does Lumon Industries do? Sponsors: Robinhood.com/gold Links: Google Strikes $32 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Startup Wiz (WSJ) “Awful”: Roku tests autoplaying ads loading before the home screen (Ars Technica) Critical RCE flaw in Apache Tomcat actively exploited in attacks (Bleeping Computer) Cognition AI Hits $4 Billion Valuation in Deal Led by Lonsdale’s Firm (Bloomberg) BYD Shares Jump to Record on Five-Minute EV Battery Charging (Bloomberg) They Named Their Companies Lumon. Then ‘Severance’ Aired. (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 Mars 202516min
Mon. 03/17 – Europe Wants To Ween Itself Off Silicon Valley
Europe wants to ween itself off of foreign big tech. Could this be the sign of a future rift with Silicon Valley? The weird case of Rippling versus Deel. Klarna lands a big fish. What the Coreweave IPO could mean for tech. And how the new iPhone Air signals a big hardware design change at Apple. Sponsors: QualiaLife.com/ride and promocode RIDE Links: European tech industry coalition calls for ‘radical action’ on digital sovereignty — starting with buying local (TechCrunch) Accusations of Corporate Espionage Shake a Software Rivalry (NYTimes) Klarna, nearing IPO, plucks lucrative Walmart fintech partnership from rival Affirm (CNBC) CoreWeave serves as bellwether for AI in soft IPO market (Semafor) Apple’s iPhone 17 ‘Air’ Is a Step Toward a Slimmer, Port-Free Era (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
17 Mars 202517min
Fri. 03/14 – E2EE For All!
The new RCS messaging standard makes encryption universal, and even Apple is getting on the bandwagon. OpenAI calls for a US ban of DeepSeek. Is Apple about to turn your AirPods into the Universal Translator from Star Trek? And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Sponsors: FactorMeals.com/factorpodcast and code FACTORPODCAST Links: Apple will soon support encrypted RCS messaging with Android users (The Verge) OpenAI calls DeepSeek ‘state-controlled,’ calls for bans on ‘PRC-produced’ models (TechCrunch) Apple Plans AirPods Feature That Can Live-Translate Conversations (Bloomberg) Gemini can now personalize its answers based on your search history (The Verge) Sony’s new RGB backlight tech absolutely smokes regular Mini LED TVs (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: ‘Ne Zha 2’s $2B+ Box Office Run: How It Happened And What Does Blockbuster Behemoth Mean For China & Hollywood Ahead (Deadline) The End Of Children (The New Yorker) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
14 Mars 202517min
Thu. 03/13 – Intel’s New Boss
Intel has a new boss and they seem to want to double down on the Foundry strategy. Meta is testing community notes. Sonos is abandoning its big streaming video hardware project. Is Adobe falling behind in AI? Is Oracle the leader to take over TikTok US? And why is John Gruber so mad at Apple? Sponsors: Shopify.com/ride Links: Intel appoints chip industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan as CEO (Reuters) Intel CEO Signals That He’ll Stick With Contentious Foundry Plan (Bloomberg) Meta unveils new community notes program; will not apply distribution penalties nor limit flow of information (Fox News) Sonos has canceled its streaming video player (The Verge) Microsoft’s new Xbox Copilot will act as an AI gaming coach (The Verge) Adobe shares drop 13% as concerns about AI growth overshadow better-than-expected results (CNBC) Oracle Is Leading Contender to Help Run TikTok in New Deal (The Information) Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino (Daring Fireball) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 Mars 202515min
Wed. 03/12 – Roomba Might Not Be Able To Clean Up This Mess
Niantic officially sells to that Saudi-owned game developer. iRobot says it might not be alive in about 12 months time. Sam Altman believes he has an AI that can write believable fiction. Is the cavalry coming to save Intel? And why can’t we create a true AI Einstein in a data center? Sponsors: Acorns.com/ride Links: Pokémon Go developer Niantic to sell gaming business to Saudi group (The Verge) Saudi-owned Scopely buys Pokémon Go in $3.5bn gaming deal (FT) One-Time Amazon Takeover Target iRobot Warns Doubt on Future (Bloomberg) Google calls Gemma 3 the most powerful AI model you can run on one GPU (TheVerge) Sam Altman says OpenAI has trained a fiction writing AI model that’s actually decent (SiliconAngle) Google changes Chrome extension policies following the Honey link scandal (TheVerge) Exclusive: TSMC pitched Intel foundry JV to Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom, sources say (Reuters) Hugging Face’s chief science officer worries AI is becoming ‘yes-men on servers’ (TheVerge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 Mars 202516min
