Tech Brew Ride Home

WhatsApp wants to make it harder for things to go viral. Airbnb buys some runway. Foursquare merges with another location data company. Checking in with Masa Son. And the latest startup to say it wants to blow up email and unseat Gmail. Sponsors: Caramba.store code: Brian20 F5.com/ride Links: WhatsApp to impose new limit on forwarding to fight fake news (The Guardian) Airbnb is raising $1 billion...

Happy Quibi day everybody. Check out your Quick Bites for free while you can! Apparently the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is a hella powerful laptop, but that’s apparently why the battery life sucks. And the Covid-related conspiracy theory inspiring people to set cellphone towers on fire in Britain. Sponsors: MindSET Podcast - Leidos.com/podcast Caramba.store, code BRIAN20 for 20% your first order Li...

Tech companies are, in fact, stepping up to track Covid-19. We have a name for the new low-end iPhone. Tesla soars but the Space X Starship doesn’t. Watch some free HBO this weekend, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: No Parking Podcast TinyCapital.com Links: Google uses location data to show which places are complying with stay-at-home orders — and which aren’t (The Verge...

Zoom apologizes, but also reveals some INSANE growth numbers. Facebook Messenger comes to desktop. YouTube wants to clone TikTok. Apple let’s some people avoid the App Store tax. More gross firings by teleconference and a timely interesting raise. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com No Parking Podcast Links: A Message to Our Users (Zoom Blog) Facebook debuts standalone Messenger app on Mac and PC (Engadget)...

We’ve reached the end of the John Legere era. Samsung thinks we’ve reached the end of the LCD era. Comcast is inadvertently proving ISP datacaps are BS. Is Zoom a victim of its own success? And it’s maybe not overstating things to say it’s past time Amazon should start thinking more humanely about… people. Sponsors: No Parking podcast TinyCapital.com Sponsors: Legere is out as T-Mobile CEO as Spri...

Snapchat launches its Stories syndication program. Fitbit has a powerful new fitness tracker. Microsoft and Spotify release some family friendly features and apps. It’s time for Zoom to come under the spotlight for privacy concerns. And a court has ruled that simply breaking a site's terms of service does not constitute criminal hacking. Sponsors: F5.com/ride TinyCaptial.com Links: Apple purchases...

HQ Trivia resurrects itself thanks to an anonymous investor. Facebook tries to squeeze Apple out of the AR screen market. Some crowdsourced data reveals who where layoffs are happening in tech but also which companies are still hiring. And a major hack takes down a big chunk of the dark web. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Feals.com/techmeme Links: HQ Trivia Returns Thanks to Anonymous Investor (WSJ) Fa...

Apple has released an official Covid-19 App. Kuo says Arm-based Macbooks are coming next year. Sony is spinning off a lot of the parts of itself that make it a tech company. Instacart workers are planning a nationwide strike on Monday. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Metalab.co Kiwico.com/ride Links: Apple releases new COVID-19 app and website based on CDC guidance (Ap...

Apple is weighing its options, and delaying the release of the 5G iPhone until 2021 is being discussed. Airbnb is offering free housing for medical workers. An interesting raise Thursday that wants to be the flip side of Shopify in the ecommerce space. And a preview of Huawei’s upcoming Google-less flagship phone. Sponsors: Metalab.co Sanebox.com/techmeme Links: Apple weighs delaying 5G iPhone lau...

How Facebook is coping with Corona, Google Podcasts comes to iOS, ad blocking officially comes to Safari, when Apple thinks it can re-open stores, Singapore open-sources it’s Corona-contact-tracing app, and have your screen time notifications horrified you this week? You’re not alone. Sponsors: Metalab.co Rhone.com/ridehome Promocode: ridehome for 20 percent off Links: Facebook Is ‘Just Trying to...

A wicked Windows zero day is out in the wild without a patch. Google is open sourcing a cool new AI architecture. Instagram wants you to co-watch your feed with a friend. A popular “challenger bank” comes to the US. And the iPad Pro reviews are in. Sponsors: Metalab.co Zapier.com/ride Links: Microsoft says hackers are attacking Windows users with a new unpatched bug (TechCrunch) Apple promises App...

The pros and cons of using big data, cellphones and the surveillance economy to combat the coronavirus. More iPhone rumors from Ming-Chi Kuo. Is the Oculus Quest bringing VR into the mainstream? And how to block your messy background when you’re on a Zoom conference call for work. Sponsors: Metalab.co Mintmobile.com/ride Links: European mobile operators share data for coronavirus fight (Reuters) T...

WSJ Technology columnist Chris Mims and I talk WFH best practices, and how the Tech Industry has responded to the Covid-19 crisis thusfar. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency * KeepComingBackPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yelp is showing how the restaurant industry is in deep trouble. Instagram makes ready to clone the last Snapchat feature it hadn’t copped yet. The very interesting lessons behind a self-driving startup closing its doors. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Zapier.com/ride Links: Amazon AWS launches $20 million initiative to help fight the coronavirus (CNBC)...

Square wants to become a bank. Microsoft Teams might be rocketing ahead of Slack in terms of user numbers. The EU wants streaming companies to cut back on HD streams. Covid might be depressing music streaming, and some analysis of the iPad becoming a regular old computer. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Blinkist.com/techmeme Links: Square gains FDIC conditional approval for a banking license (Silicon An...

It’s a day of new! New iPads pro, new Macbooks Air, new Macs Mini, and more bye bye butterfly keyboard! A new Transcribe for Android, a new design overhaul for Slack, all the specs for the new Playstation 5, and why Cameo is a new app to keep your eye on. Sponsors: Tinycapital.com Zapier.com/ride Linkedin.com/ride Links: Apple announces new iPad Pro with trackpad support and a wild keyboard cover...

Big acquisition for GitHub... which really means: big acquisition for Microsoft as it continues to gobble up the entire developer stack. The iPhone 9 chips will not be underpowered at all. How Amazon is, in fact, trying to cope with the Corona-surge. And is this crisis the tipping point for streaming media? Sponsors: Tinycapital.com TryExpressVPN.com/ride Links: Microsoft's GitHub acquires npm to...

Apple fined by France, the FCC nets a bundle at auction, new Beats earbuds, all the specs for the new Xbox Series X, and how Google got caught by surprise by President Trump’s announcement regarding Coronavirus work. Sponsors: Tinycapital.com TryExpressVPN.com/ride Links: Apple fined a record $1.2 billion by French antitrust authorities (CNBC) FCC’s largest spectrum auction nets $4.47 billion for...

Has the Coronavirus proven that datacaps from ISPs are a sham? Comcast accidentally published the numbers of customers who paid them not to do that. Airbnb continues to be in trouble. Cool no-code tools from Atlassian, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency BuyRaycon.com/tech Links: Housebound Italian Kids Strain Network With Fortnite Marathon (Bloomberg) AT&T...

Are the factories coming back online in China? Is G Suite quietly one of the biggest platforms out there? Why is Magic Leap “exploring options” and why does it want everyone to know that? An interesting raise. And I really didn’t mean to crash the crypto markets with my comments yesterday. Sponsors: Protect.eset.com/ride DoubleUp.agency Links: Apple Closes All 17 Stores in Italy Amid Coronavirus P...

E3 is cancelled. Uber might ban drivers AND riders who test positive for Coronavirus. A 2nd gen Chromecast Ultra might be coming. A Peloton-style workout app from Apple might be coming. A look at Amazon’s entry into the suddenly hot ARM-s race. And am I wrong or wasn’t crypto supposed to help during the apocalypse? Sponsors: Protect.eset.com/ride DoubleUp.agency Links: E3 2020 Canceled After ‘Over...

A leaked version of Apple’s iOS 14 reveals a treasure trove of details about an upcoming iPhone and iPad, augmented reality software, and tracking tags; an analytics company has secretly operated VPN and ad-blocking apps and gathered data from tens of millions of users without proper disclosure, a company offering panopticon service to the state of Utah once developed disguised social-media scrapi...

Another day of markets in turmoil, another Robinhood outage. Jack Dorsey lives to fight another day. Apple is repairing some iPad Airs for free, and might bring 64 MP cameras to the iPhone 12. Gaming out the reality of a ARM-based Mac. And let me hip you to “sleep streaming” on TikTok. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Links: Robinhood goes down again, causing clients to miss out on another historic tradi...

I’ve said before, Steven Levy is the dean of the tech writers. All the way back in 1984 his classic book Hackers defined a tech space that wasn’t even fully aware of itself yet. Steven has written book length histories and examinations of Apple and Google, and now, with his new book, Facebook: The Inside Story, he finally tells the full Facebook story for the first time. Not the movie version, but...

Another flaw in Intel chips, this time unfixable. Y Combinator demo day is going online only. Sonos won’t brick your old hardware anymore. Jack Dorsey probably won’t be moving to Africa anymore. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Links: Metalab.co TheUSample.com/product Links: 5 years of Intel CPUs and chipsets have a concerning flaw that’s unfixable (Ars Technica) Apple is rejecti...