Techmeme Ride Home

Turns out Google poked Apple in the eye also, layoffs hit Vice, Amazon reports earnings and reports that a ton of people responded to that minimum wage hike, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple restores Google's internal iOS apps after certificate misuse punishment (TechCrunch) Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election (The Washington Post) Vice Media to Reorganize, Lay Off 10 Percent of Staff (Exclusive) (The Hollywood Reporter) Why the Outlook for Digital Media Behemoths is Worse than You Think (Talking Points Memo) Amazon Notches Third Record Profit in a Row (WSJ) Americans are lining up to work for Amazon for $15 an hour (QZ) Why Alexa usually won’t respond when someone says ‘Alexa’ on TV (VentureBeat) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekend Longreads Suggestions The ShopTalkShow podcast Is Alexa working? (Benedict Evans) As I.P.O. Approaches, Lyft’s Chief Is Nudged Into th

Facebook returns to growth, iPhones might be getting USB-C and 3D cameras, Hulu’s launching pause-ads, and on Reddit, it’s paintings of paintings of paintings of birds, all the way down. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Mark Zuckerberg wants to get back to building new Facebook products (ReCode) Nintendo cuts Switch sales forecast despite strong holiday season (The Verge) Apple Is Planning 3-D Cameras for New iPhones in AR Push (Bloomberg) HACKERS ARE PASSING AROUND A MEGALEAK OF 2.2 BILLION RECORDS (Wired) Hulu announces a new ad unit that appears when you pause (TechCrunch) The Reddit Painting Links: The orig post Tweet storm showing the painting progression The painting tree illustrated on github Flipboard Links: https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Facebook decides to mix it up a bit: what if we had a scandal that pissed off our business partners? Apple’s earnings are mixed but you can see where they’re going with this. Why Americans no longer answer the phone and are you ready for 1TB smartphones? Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Facebook pays teens to install VPN that spies on them (TechCrunch) Apple blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps (The Verge) Apple Reports First Quarter Results (Apple Newsroom) Report: Americans got 26.3 billion robocalls last year, up 46 percent from 2017 (Washington Post) 1TB phones are coming and I’m so f***ing ready (TNW) Flipboards: https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-daily-podcast-tc2a63l7y https://flipboard.com/@thomasgalla1pp6/techmeme-ride-home-weekend-long-reads-m64k8fj9y Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pretty major FaceTime bug from Apple, the DOJ makes it’s case against Huawei, the first successful ICO of the year and what Bluetooth ‘direction finding’ might do for you. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Major iPhone FaceTime bug lets you hear the audio of the person you are calling … before they pick up (9to5Mac) U.S. Charges Huawei With Stealing Trade Secrets, Bank Fraud (Bloomberg) BitTorrent Tokens Sold Out in Under 15 Minutes, Netting Over $7 Mln (CoinTelegraph) Bluetooth gains ‘direction finding’ for location accuracy to the centimeter (VentureBeat) After backlash, BuzzFeed says it will pay out earned paid time off to laid off employees (CNN Business) Aiming to change the way people take medicine, Lyndra Therapeutics raises $55 million (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Apple subscription gaming service? Is Facebook Watch still alive? The GDPR floodgates are truly open. And losing to AI’s might have some benefits. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Apple Plans Gaming Subscription Service: Sources (Cheddar) A Tiny Screw Shows Why iPhones Won’t Be ‘Assembled in U.S.A.’ (NYTimes) China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018 (South China Morning Post) China's smartphone shipments dropped 14 percent in 2018 (TechCrunch) Facebook Watch Isn’t Living Up to Its Name (Bloomberg) Google and IAB ad category lists show 'massive leakage of highly intimate data,' GDPR complain claims (TechCrunch) AI Helps Amputees Walk With a Robotic Knee (IEEE Spectrum) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my favorite people to read is the Wall Street Journal tech columnist Chris Mims. We talked about his piece this week positing that email was back, baby! And I read a piece he did a while back about the new way of constructing super energy efficient homes, but when I did the email piece and remembered he did a piece recently about how I’m more likely to get a burrito delivered to me for lunch than to have my self-driving wager come in by commuting to work in a robot car, I knew it was time to hit up Chris to come on the pod. He’s a listener! This episode has a full transcript. The posts we discuss: The Hot New Channel for Reaching Real People: Email Why Your Ice Cream Will Ride in a Self-Driving Car Before You Do  Sponsors: Squarespace.com/listen Risk! Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Given all the news of layoffs in the digital media space this week, I knew I couldn't sit on this interview with Rafat Ali any longer. Currently the founder and CEO of digital media company Skift—but also, if you weren’t aware, a true digital media pioneer going back to his founding of Paid Content—I knew he could talk about this stuff, and he has a pretty unique perspective on the state of digital media in 2019. TLDR, it’s not good. Dire might even be the word.  This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Capterra.com/ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now the AIs can defeat us at StarCraft II (too?), Zuckerberg wants to unify his collection of messaging apps, my grand unifying theory for the streaming video wars and of course the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Juniper.net/try Metalab.co Links: Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger (NYTimes) Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money (Reveal) Facebook ignored kids’ spending problems, internal documents reveal (BBC News) DeepMind AI Challenges Pro StarCraft II Players, Wins Almost Every Match (ExtremeTech) Coming to a TV near you: personalized ads (Axios) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekend Longreads: From Founder to CEO (podcast) EVERYBODY DOES IT: THE MESSY TRUTH ABOUT INFILTRATING COMPUTER SUPPLY CHAINS (The Intercept) Katzenberg and Whitman: Hollywood’s New Odd Couple (Fortune) Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: The Rolling Stone Interview (Rolling Stone) “The Linux of social media”—How LiveJournal pioneered (then lost) blogging (ArsTechnic

Bing’s Schrodinger-style China Ban, headphones from Sonos, flying cars from Boeing, layoffs for project Titan, and the serious ongoing layoffs in the digital media world. Sponsors: Lightstream.com/ride Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Stories from: @pkafka, @markgurman  Tweets: @stroughtonsmith Links: China Appears to Block Microsoft’s Bing as Censorship Intensifies (NYTimes) Sonos Plans Headphones in Move Outside the Home (Bloomberg) Boeing’s ‘flying car’ lifts off in race to revolutionize urban transport (VentureBeat) The U.S. Government Shutdown Has Delivered A Surprise Blow To Bitcoin (Forbes) Apple just dismissed more than 200 employees from Project Titan, its autonomous vehicle group (CNBC) Verizon Media Group is laying off 7% of its staff (CNBC) BuzzFeed is laying off more than 200 people, its second round of cuts in 14 months (Recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

YouTube TV goes nationwide, Jony Ive’s dream phone design, Patreon milestones and is Spotify killing music’s middle class? Sponsors: Joybird.com/RIDE ... Promocode RIDE Metalab.co Links: YouTube TV finally goes nationwide almost two years after launch (The Verge) Hulu drops to just $5.99 per month after Netflix’s price hikes (The Verge) Waymo says it will build self-driving cars in Michigan (Reuters) Xiaomi's flexible phone concept folds on both sides (Engadget) Meizu Zero debuts with no physical buttons, speaker or charging port (GSMarena) Millions and Billions | Celebrating Patrons, Creators, and Major Milestones (Patreon Blog) Digitimes: AirPods 2 launching in first half of this year, redesigned to support ‘health monitoring’ features (9to5Mac) Spotify Will Soon Let You Block Artists (Thurrot.com) The economics of streaming is making songs shorter (QZ) Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class? (The Ringer) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Munchery bites the big one, Foxconn considers moving production to India, Netflix wants a seat at the adults table, and, yes, even guitar tech is now tech. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Munchery closes on-demand meal-delivery business (San Francisco Chronicle) Foxconn Looks Beyond China to India for iPhone Assembly (WSJ) Apple Supplier in Japan Looks to Taiwan for Bailout After iPhone XR Letdown (WSJ) Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Apple Newsroom) Netflix in advanced talks to join major Hollywood lobbying group (Politico) Rosetta Stone for iPhone adds AI to identify objects for live translations (VentureBeat) FENDER'S NEW ACOUSTIC GUITAR HAS A MILLION DIFFERENT VOICES (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The GDPR fines begin, but the EU “link tax” might be in trouble, Uber wants self driving scooters, and why email is back, baby! (Hint: it never left.) Sponsors: Flatironschool.com/podcast Metalab.co Links: French data protection watchdog fines Google $57 million under the GDPR (TechCrunch) Copyright negotiations hit a brick wall in Council (Julia Reda) Uber is exploring autonomous bikes and scooters (TechCrunch) A POKER-PLAYING ROBOT GOES TO WORK FOR THE PENTAGON (Wired) Amazon helped 50,000 SMBs generate $500,000 in sales (Neowin) The Hot New Channel for Reaching Real People: Email (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ali's Medium Post: Land of the Super Founders On this bonus episode, we’re going to revisit a past weekend longread suggestion and talk to the author of that longread to go further in-depth. Do you remember I recommended Land of the Super Founders a medium piece by Ali Tamaseb who spent 300 hours gathering data on unicorn startups to answer the simple question what did billion-dollar startups look like when they were getting started? What common traits did they share?  This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Squarespace.com/listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week had a lot of health tech news in it… a lot of it broken by CNBC’s health tech reporter Christina Farr. So, I reached out to Christina to chat, and we discussed Amazon getting into healthcare—possibly even getting into health insurance—what Apple’s health strategy is, where health tech might go beyond wearables and how the healthcare industry is responding to Silicon Valley invading their turf. This episode has a full transcript. Sponsor: Squarespace.com/listen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix starts to open up, Cortana stops competing, gadget reviews now include shoes as a category and the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Netflix beats on subscriber growth, but misses slightly on revenue — stock falls after hours (CNBC) It’s Official: Satya Nadella Confirms Cortana Defeat (Thurrott) Nike's auto-laced future (TechCrunch) NIKE'S NEW SELF-LACING BASKETBALL SHOE IS ACTUALLY SMART (Wired) The SmartTouchUSA.com Weekened Longreads Drone Radio Show Delivery Drones Use Bird-Inspired Legs to Jump Into the Air (IEEE Spectrum) Why Do Shareholders Agree to Give Up Voting Rights? (New York Magazine) The Attention Economy Is a Malthusian Trap (The Atlantic) The Story Behind Meta, the AR Startup That Just Had Its Assets Sold to a Mystery Buyer (Variety) Rekindled yet again, Nokia’s next-gen phones offer more than just nostalgia (Digital Trends) INSIDE THE STRANGE YET PROFITABLE WORLD OF RETAIL ARBITRAGE (Mel Magazine) EA’s Troubled Decade Of Star War

Tim Cook calls for a data-broker clearinghouse, a possible criminal case against Huawei, the largest leak of user credentials ever found in the wild, and why we probably need a Unix for machine learning. Sponsors: Tiny.website DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia (Facebook Newsroom) You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It (Time) I Mentored Mark Zuckerberg. I Loved Facebook. But I Can't Stay Silent About What's Happening. (Time) Huawei Targeted in U.S. Criminal Probe for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets (WSJ) HACK BRIEF: AN ASTONISHING 773 MILLION RECORDS EXPOSED IN MONSTER BREACH (Wired) AWS For Everyone: New clues emerge about Amazon’s secretive low-code/no-code project (GeekWire) Former Facebook engineer picks up $15M for AI platform Spell (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More high profile execs quit Snap, Apple’s in talks to get more Apple Watches in the hands of seniors, the state of the App Economy, and the Razr is coming back to herald in the era of the bendable phone. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome (DataDog's Blog Post on Container Trends) Tiny.website Links: WeWork’s CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork (WSJ) Apple is in talks with private Medicare plans about bringing its watch to at-risk seniors (CNBC) App economy expected to be $120 billion in 2019 as small screen leads digital transformation efforts (ZDNet) FACEBOOK'S '10 YEAR CHALLENGE' IS JUST A HARMLESS MEME—RIGHT? (Wired) Madagascar has become a business outsourcing hotspot thanks to its super-fast internet (QZ Africa) Return of the Razr—With a Foldable Screen and $1,500 Price (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Netflix raises prices, maybe the Apple battery replacement WAS a big deal after all, cops can’t force you to unlock your phone with your face, and Amazon is driving its retail competitors into the arms of Microsoft. Sponsors: Metalab.co DatadogHQ.com/ridehome Links: Netflix will raise prices for US subscribers, with its most popular plan going up to $13 per month (TechCrunch) Apple Q1 Numbers: Missing Explanations (Monday Note) ON APPLE’S $29 IPHONE BATTERY REPLACEMENT PROGRAM AND ITS ROLE IN THEIR EARNINGS MISS (Daring Fireball) MongoDB Follow-up, AWS’ Incentives, Batteries: The iPhone’s Missing Miss (Stratechery) Apple's 5G iPhone shift bogged down by Qualcomm chip battle (CNET) German court throws out Qualcomm's latest patent case against Apple (Reuters) Feds Can't Force You To Unlock Your iPhone With Finger Or Face, Judge Rules (Forbes) Microsoft counters Amazon again with big Walgreens partnership, aiming to reshape healthcare (GeekWire) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adch

Event sharing comes to stories, what this year’s CES says about where consumer tech is at the moment, and then a bunch of stories about what that means for the future in different ways, including wireless chips that suck power from the air, and the dilemma that voice assistants pose for the modern office. Sponsors: DataDogHQ.com/ridehome Tiny.website Links: Facebook’s new Stories feature for event sharing actually sounds useful (The Verge) CES 2019: A Show Report (Learn By Shipping/@stevesi) SoundGuys: USB-C audio is dead (Android Authority) Wiliot nabs $30M from Amazon, Avery Dennison, Samsung for a chip that runs on power from ambient radio frequencies (TechCrunch) The rise of Alexa creates a dilemma for your open plan office (Wired) A Picture Of An Egg Beat Kylie Jenner For The Most Liked Instagram Of All Time (BuzzFeed News) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The great Howard Lindzon and I discuss how Wall Street is thinking of Tech right now, what Apple's deal is and what the prospects are for those big tech IPOs coming down the pike. This episode has a full transcript. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices