Tech Brew Ride Home

Google’s AI has a medical breakthrough, Apple raids HBO for maybe it’s biggest name, Instagram seems to be plateauing by one metric—going gangbusters in another, what to expect from CES and, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Sponsors: WeWorkRemotely Links: A.I. Is Learning to Read Mammograms (NYTimes) Apple Deal Returns Former HBO Boss Richard Plepler to Spotlight (NYTimes) HERE’S WHAT...

Dell kicks off CES season with two new laptops, Imagination Technologies is back in Apple’s good graces, the IRS is finally sticking it to tax prep software firms, and a grand unified theory of the Google Civil War. Sponsors: WeWorkRemotely MintMobile.com/ride Links: Dell’s latest XPS 13 has a new design with a bigger display and Ice Lake chips (The Verge) Dell debuts 5G-ready Latitude 9510 laptop...

A major internet of things data leak, China is about to turn on its GPS competitor, would you like to star in a bitmoji TV show, a look back at the year in unicorns and is the VC gravy train over for us consumers, at least? Sponsors: WeWorkRemotely GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: IoT vendor Wyze confirms server leak (ZDNet) China decouples from US in space with 2020 'GPS' completion (Nikkei Asian Rev...

A late holiday gift for YouTube creators, an important new rule for drone operators, to what degree has the Chinese government enabled Huawei’s success, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: GiveWell.org/ridehome Mealime Links: YouTube gives creators more control over copyright claim disputes with new update (The Verge) New rule would make it possible to track and identify ne...

Travis Kalanick has cut all ties with Uber, Sling does indeed have streaming pricing power, livestreams are the new telethons, YouTube considered doing the right thing but passed, and is Catalyst fundamentally flawed? Sponsors: Mealime GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: Travis Kalanick severs all ties with Uber, departing board and selling all his shares (CNBC) Sling TV gets more expensive, raises cheap...

The Government says ToTok is a full on spying app, TikTok wants to distance itself from allegations that it might be a spying app, out of nowhere, could Rivian be Tesla’s biggest competitor, and what does it mean if Travis Kalanick sells all of his Uber stock? Sponsors: GiveWell.org/ridehome Mealime Links: It Seemed Like a Popular Chat App. It’s Secretly a Spy Tool. (NYTimes) U.S. Navy bans TikTok...

Does Apple have a secret team to do an end run around telecom carriers, Google buys a game studio, IAC buys Care.com, Ripple is an interesting raise, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Tiny Capital GetQuip.com/ride Booknotesapp.com (or on iPhone and Android) Links: Apple Has Secret Team Working on Satellites to Beam Data to Devices (Bloomberg) Google buys triple-A game dev...

That big NYTimes piece about location data, is Facebook taking another run at creating its own OS, is Apple considering buying James Bond, is Spotify building a social graph, and do e-athletes need gaming socks? Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Rhone.com/ridehome Links: Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy (NYTimes) Facebook will bar posts, ads that spread disinformation about the U.S. Census...

Everyone comes together to create a smart-home standard, did Google consider walking away from its cloud business, the last holdout comes to streaming, Gary Larson stops holding out on the web and the math behind that gift-wrapping video. Sponsors: Tiny Capital Aircall.io/ride Links: Apple, Google and Amazon are cooperating to make your home gadgets talk to each other (CNBC) We Tested Ring’s Secur...

More reported casualties in the Google Civil War, more strife between Amazon and FedEx, can Amazon turn Alexa into a healthy ecosystem, developers: get busy on Edge extensions, and the top apps of the decade have one big thing in common. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: Google accused of firing another worker in union-busting drive (Engadget) Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using...

Chrome 79 is wiping data from some apps, Amazon is about to deliver more than FedEx or UPS all by its lonesome, Argo plans to charge by the mile, smart TV’s make margin by watching you, does music lack pricing power and help me find a name for $100 million-dollar annual recurring revenue startups. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com DollarShaveClub.com/ride Links: Google pauses Chrome 79 rollout on Android...

For the final weekend bonus episode of the year, I wanted to check in with Crypto. What a year for the space! Seemingly dead at the beginning of the year. But then the Crypto Spring™ happened. And then Libra happened. And so… where are we? No one better than CoinDesk’s Brady Dale to catch us up… Sponsors: PixelUnion.net Mealime Sofi.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc...

Details about the next-gen Xbox, Apple makes an interesting acquisition around photography, Lyft will rent you a car, why I find Roku so interesting, and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Today In Digital Marketing Podcast PixelUnion.net aircall.io/ride Links: Microsoft’s next Xbox is Xbox Series X, coming holiday 2020 (The Verge) Apple Buys U.K. Startup to Improve iPhone Pi...

Google releases all the things at once, everyone is mulling over Jack’s decentralized Twitter idea, one last tech IPO of the year, should seed investors just say yes to every deal, why you should know the Canva story, and why Cousin Greg playing Adam Neumann is my Christmas dream come true. Sponsors: PixelUnion.net GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: FTC Weighs Seeking Injunction Against Facebook Over Ho...

A bold new proposal to decentralize social media from Jack Dorsey, YouTube bans “malicious insults,” you can only clean your Pro Display XDR with a special cloth, Silicon Valley is no longer everyone’s favorite place to work and the big tech companies whistled past their troubles this year. Sponsors: aircall.io/ride Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Links: The Bluesky Thread (@jack) YouTube Will...

Apple is suing its former chip architect, the Apple Card finally makes sense to me, wheels on the Mac Pro will run you $400, Softbank abandons Wag, Microsoft brings Office to Linux and I want the new tech bubble to be about exoskeletons. Sponsors: PixelUnion.net Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Links: Apple sues iPhone CPU design ace after he quits to run data-center chip upstart Nuvia (The Regi...

China orders its own crackdown on foreign tech, Google is bringing “feature drops” to Pixel Phones, the Mac Pro is here but Wunderlist is exiting stage left, Magic Leap seems to be having issues, and an interesting raise from, well… us. Sponsors: Ashford.edu/ride Netgear.com/bestwifi Links: Beijing orders state offices to replace foreign PCs and software (Asian Financial Review) Making Pixel more...

I’ve been trying to read books about AI lately to get a firmer grasp on this important topic, and the best book I’ve read for both a basic grounding of the history and the state of play of AI, but also looking at potential frameworks for the technology, both ethically and socially is A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Who We Are by Flynn Coleman. Sponsors: PixelUnion Meal...

I had already reached out to Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen this week to talk about the Google Civil War, but then, of course, there was other big Google news this week. So, come for the assessment of Google’s culture at the moment but stay for an assessment of regime change and a lot more. Sponsors: Metalab Mealime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Uber safety report, more Galaxy S11 rumors, could Apple be about to kill the charging port on iPhones entirely and what would that mean, Samsung’s new chips to make AR mainstream and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Metalab PaintYourLife. Text TECH to 64-000 Links: Uber Says 3,045 Sexual Assaults Were Reported in U.S. Rides Last Year (NYTimes) Samsung to Take on iPhone’s...

The FTC might be broadening its look into Amazon, the new flagship Snapdragon Chips, a disc-free Xbox, checkins with Slack, Imgur and Robinhood, and craigslist enters the 21st century. Sponsors: Metalab.co Vistaprint.com Promo Code: Ride50 (for up to 50% off) Links: Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud Business (Bloomberg) Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 865 and 765(G): 5G For All...

Larry and Sergey ride their Segway’s off into the sunset, a new entrant in the streaming wars, more news from the re:Invent conference, YouTube says it’s algorithm change is working and the year that was, in the world of Reddit. Sponsors: Metalab Capterra.com/ride GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: A letter from Larry and Sergey (The Keyword) GOOGLE’S THIRD ERA (The Verge) Plex launches a free, ad-suppo...

Headlines from re:Invent, how tech is caught up in a tariff war with France, Facebook created a chatbot to help employees explain themselves during the holidays, and let me tell you about the new foldable phone from Pablo Escobar’s brother. Sponsors: Metalab Netgear.com/bestwifi Links: AWS Graviton2: What it means for Arm in the data center, cloud, enterprise, AWS (ZDNet) AWS launches its custom I...

Interesting Galaxy S11 leaks, T-Mobile flips the switch on its 5G network, might different models of next year’s iPhone have different versions of 5G, the rundown of Black Friday/Cyber Monday and why an e-sports team is IPO-ing. Sponsors: Legacybox.com/ride Sofi.com/ride Links: Samsung Suddenly Exposes Radical New Galaxy Smartphone [Updated] (Forbes) T-Mobile launches 600MHz 5G across the US, but...

Since it’s a holiday week in the US, I’m going to do what I’ve done once before on Holiday weeks and give you an episode from the Internet History Podcast archives. This is a story about tech history that, if you’ve never heard it, will blow your mind. What if I told you there was a crazy entrepreneur who was the true founder of what would become America Online? He was the guy who hired Steve Case...