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The US charges Huawei with racketeering. Could the future of the Apple Watch be modular? Uber trials ordering an Uber via 800 number. Interesting raises in robotics and in space. And why quantum entanglement could lead to a truly secure internet. Sponsors: Doubleup.agency BuyRaycon.com/tech Links: The US is charging Huawei with racketeering (TechCrunch) Andy Rubin’s Start-Up, Essential Products, Shuts Down (NYTimes) Apple Watch of the future could have a modular back for upgrades & new sensors (Apple Insider) Broadcom launches Wi-Fi 6 extended combo processor, aims to hit 2 Gbps speeds (ZDNet) Uber's latest test books rides with a phone call, not the app (Engadget) Intuition Robotics raises $36 million to bring AI companions to everyone (VentureBeat) Astranis raises $90 million for its next-gen satellite broadband internet service (TechCrunch) Dieter Bohn's Processor newsletter (The Verge) Quantum entanglement over 30 miles of fiber has brought super secure internet closer (MIT Technolog

Does Uncle Sam have a smoking gun when it comes to Huawei? Could Airbnb’s recent financials imperil its IPO plans? Is Apple Pay eating the payments market? Is the CISO job actually a miserable one? And might the Z Flip actually be the first good foldable phone? Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Zapier.com/ride Links: U.S. Officials Say Huawei Can Covertly Access Telecom Networks (WSJ) Facebook accuses telecoms groups of disinformation tactics (Financial Times) FTC Expands Antitrust Investigation Into Big Tech (WSJ) Airbnb Swings to a Loss as Costs Climb Ahead of IPO (WSJ) Apple Pay is on pace to account for 10% of all global card transactions (QZ) State of Software Engineers (Hired.com) Average tenure of a CISO is just 26 months due to high stress and burnout (ZDNet) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip hands-on: This is more like it (TechCrunch) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip hands-on: Razr who? (Engadget) Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip beats the Motorola Razr in nearly every way (The Verge) The world’s biggest phone sho

All of the headlines from the big Samsung Unpacked event, the T-Mobile-Sprint merger is officially a go… mostly, Brandless is the first Softbank company to shut down entirely, a Sirius lifeline for Soundcloud, and has the CIA quietly been the real owner of the leading encryption company for decades now? Sponsors: DoubleUP.agency LinkedIN.com/ride Links: SAMSUNG’S GALAXY S20, PLUS, AND ULTRA FIRST LOOK: CAMERAS, 5G, AND 120HZ SCREENS (The Verge) Samsung’s new foldable Galaxy Z Flip will arrive on February 14th for $1,380 (The Verge) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip debuts w/ less expensive ‘flip phone’ design (9to5Google) Judge approves $26 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint (CNBC) Brandless shuts down operations, becoming SoftBank Vision Fund's first failure (Protocol) SiriusXM Acquires Minority Stake in SoundCloud for $75 Million (The Hollywood Reporter) Netflix dominates viewing on TVs over all other streaming services (CNET) ‘The intelligence coup of the century’ (Washington Post) Lear

The DOJ says the Chinese were behind the Equifax hack, MWC is becoming a ghost conference, the Razr reviews are in, the Corp.com domain name is a weird story, and why ARM’s new edge chips could revolutionize the Internet of Things. Sponsors: Netgear.com/bestwifi Ashford.edu/ride Links: U.S. charges Chinese military hackers with massive Equifax breach (Politico) As top exhibitors pull out of MWC, organizers implement stringent safeguards (TechCrunch) Coronavirus: Sony and Amazon pull out of major tech show (BBC News) Motorola Razr review: It's the most personal phone I've used, but I have concerns (CNET) Motorola Razr review: A tragedy unfolds (Input Magazine) Netflix Spends Big for Oscars—Will Hollywood Give In? (WSJ) Dangerous Domain Corp.com Goes Up for Sale (KrebsonSecurity) ARM’s new edge AI chips promise IoT devices that won’t need the cloud (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uber says it will be profitable quicker than it had expected to, yet another entrant into the lists at the Streaming Wars, what’s it like to use a 64-core processor, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Podcorn.com Links: Uber stock is on pace for its best day ever (CNBC) ViacomCBS to launch new streaming service blending CBS All Access with Paramount films, Viacom channels (CNBC) NYSE Owner Abandons Potential eBay Deal (WSJ) The 64 Core Threadripper 3990X CPU Review (AnandTech) Big Tech opponent Bernie Sanders raises more money from Big Tech employees than anyone else (Recode) Netflix will now let you disable its awful autoplaying feature (The Verge) The Weekend Longreads Suggestions: MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS FUTURE IS NOW TIED TO HARDWARE (The Verge) Steven Levy's Plaintext An Algorithm That Grants Freedom, or Takes It Away (NYTimes) ‘ClassPass Is Squeezing Studios to the Point of Death’ (Vice) Elon Musk Can’t Lose (BuzzFeed News) A SMALL ROCKET

Google Maps turns 15 and puts on a fresh coat of paint, it turns out you WILL be able to unlock your car via iPhone and really soon, Huawei is suing Verizon, Twitter impresses investors, Casper has a rollercoaster IPO, and does the fact that Google has stopped reporting a key metric basically guarantee that they have crossed the ad-load Rubicon? Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Podcorn.com Links: Google Maps gets a new icon and more tabs to celebrate 15th anniversary (The Verge) New ‘CarKey’ feature in iOS 13.4 beta brings built-in support for unlocking, driving, and sharing NFC car keys (9to5Mac) Apple now sells more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry (The Verge) Huawei sues Verizon for alleged patent violations (The Verge) Twitter reports $1.01B in Q4 revenue with 152M monetizable daily active users (TechCrunch) Casper surges nearly 30% in market debut (CNBC) The mysterious disappearance of Google's click metric (ZDNet) Ancestry to lay off 6% of workforce because of a slowdown in the

Spotify officially buys The Ringer, we have the official Disney+ subscriber numbers, Jeff Weiner is officially stepping down as LinkedIn CEO, a Rockstar Games co-founder is apparently leaving the company, and what languages do most developers say they want to learn next? Sponsors: TinyCapital.com NetGear.com/bestwifi Links: Spotify is buying Bill Simmons’s The Ringer to boost its podcast business (Recode) Disney earnings beat expectations, fueled by strong Disney+ subscriptions (Yahoo! Finance) LG Electronics is withdrawing from Mobile World Congress due to coronavirus (The Verge) NYSE Owner Intercontinental Exchange Makes Takeover Offer for eBay (WSJ) Instagram Brings In More Than a Quarter of Facebook Sales (Bloomberg) Jeff Weiner Updates His LinkedIn Profile (Wired) Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser is leaving the company (The Verge) Programming languages: Go and Python are what developers most want to learn (ZDNet) Why the N.Y.P.D. Dropped One of Its Oldest Crime-Fighting Tools (NYTimes

We finally know how big a business YouTube is, the tech angle on that Iowa Caucuses mess IS the only angle, Mastercard explains why it pulled out of Libra, and why has the US Government decided to break up Big Razor, before it gets around to Big Tech. Sponsors: Capterra.com/ride WarbyParker.com/tech Links: YouTube is a $15 billion-a-year business, Google reveals for the first time (The Verge) This Is The Buzzy Democratic Firm That Botched The Iowa Caucuses (HuffPost) Some Google Photos videos in ‘Takeout’ backups were sent to strangers last November (9to5Google) Mastercard chief speaks out against nationalism and Facebook (Financial Times) Asana Says It’s Filed to Go Public Through a Direct Listing (Bloomberg) Chip Industry Had Worst Sales Year Since Dot-Com Bubble Burst (Bloomberg) Top Antitrust Official Is Said to Recuse Himself From Google Inquiry (NYTimes) The US government is breaking up Big Razor before it gets to Big Tech (Recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg

The end might truly be nigh for Blackberry this time. Will the Corona Virus mean we won’t have an Apple event next month after all? Leaked video of the Galaxy Z Flip. Did Jeff Bezos succumb to Elon Musk envy? And why one of the most popular music streaming services in the world is one you’ve probably never heard of. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com LegalZoom.com (code: ride at checkout) Links: BlackBerry’s Android smartphones will stop being sold in August 2020 (9to5Google) Ming-Chi Kuo Says Coronavirus Outbreak Impacting iPhone Supply, Lowers Shipment Forecast (MacRumors) Uber Suspends 240 Mexican Accounts to Prevent Coronavirus Spread (Bloomberg) Microsoft Teams goes down after Microsoft forgot to renew a certificate (The Verge) Alleged leaked video shows off Samsung’s folding Galaxy Z Flip (The Verge) Disney Takes Tighter Control of Hulu After Disney+ Bundle Revs Up Growth (Bloomberg) Behind Amazon’s HQ2 Fiasco: Jeff Bezos Was Jealous of Elon Musk (Bloomberg) Spotify, Apple Music Trail Littl

This is the promised interview with Angela Strange from Andreessen Horowitz. I told you about it on the weekend longreads segment yesterday, so no more need to explain it: let’s talk about why soon, every company could be a Fintech company. Sponsor: Tinycapital.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon earnings, the new Apple Maps is rolling out in the US, Uber and DoorDash held merger talks at Softbank’s behest, who’s number two to TikTok in short form videos, and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsor: Metalab.co Links: Amazon Revenue Jumps on Holiday Sales as Profit Rises (WSJ) Apple's redesigned Maps app is available across the US (TechCrunch) Uber and DoorDash held merger talks after SoftBank push (Financial Times) SoftBank Is Funding Every Side of a Bruising Startup Battle (WSJ) EU lawmakers snub Apple's pleas, overwhelmingly vote to push for charging cable standard (Apple Insider) How Dubsmash revived itself as #2 to TikTok (TechCrunch) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Every Company Will Be a Fintech Company (Angela Strange/A16Z) Don't Brush Off Mouth Tech As a Passing Fad (Wired) The iPad's original software designer and program lead look back on the device's first 10 years (InPut) Super Bowl 2020: The madness and magic behind the game’s first 4K HDR broadc

Its Earnings Bonanza Day! Tesla, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung… Facebook pays a record fine to Illinois, the Switch has outsold the SNES, three interesting Apple stories, Avast changes its business model and the new Fantastical app. Sponsors: Metalab.co BelovedRobot.com/nolowcode Links: Tesla’s record 2019 has bought it some breathing room (The Verge) We’re about to enter a world where Tesla is the cheaper electric car (Quartz) Facebook plunges, wiping out more than $50 billion in market value (CNBC) Xbox revenue falls 21% as Microsoft gears up for Xbox Series X debut (GeekWire) Samsung Posts Lower Profit, Anticipates End of Chip Slump (WSJ) Facebook to Pay $550 Million to Settle Facial Recognition Suit (NYTimes) Avast winds down Jumpshot, cites user data sale privacy concerns (ZDNet) Nintendo upgrades fiscal-year forecast as Switch hits 52.5 million consoles sold (VentureBeat) Apple Hires Key Netflix Engineer in Bid to Boost Subscription Services (WSJ) Apple Ends AI Startup’s Work on ‘

Apple earnings, Google is testing another chat app, we know Uncle Sam is wary of Huawei but did you know he doesn’t trust DJI either, Lime is testing AI scooters and the new app that will let you skip the ads without screwing over publishers. Sponsors: Metalab.co Links: Apple shares rise after company reports better-than-expected revenue of $91.8B (TechCrunch) Apple could see some impact from coronavirus in China, Cook says (CNET) Google Developing New ‘Unified’ Communications App for Businesses (The Information) Interior Department Adopts Restrictions Aimed at Chinese Drones (WSJ) Facebook's 'Clear History' Tool Doesn't Clear Shit (Gizmodo) Ring Doorbell App Packed with Third-Party Trackers (EFF) Lime knows when you're riding on a sidewalk, and will warn you if you do (CNET) Here’s how to stop seeing ads on the internet without screwing over publishers (recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The UK government will allow Huawei to build SOME 5G components, the coronavirus is testing the Great Firewall of China, Product Hunt has a social network, Gruber is critical of the iPad at 10, and would you stay at an Atari Hotel? Sponsors: Metalab.co Wealthfront.com/techmeme Links: UK Huawei decision appears to avert row with US (The Guardian) As Virus Spreads, Anger Floods Chinese Social Media (NYTimes) iPhone 11's new multicam app lets you shoot video with two cameras at once (CNET) Product Hunt Has Released YourStack, A Social Network Where People Talk About Products (BuzzFeed News) The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10 (Daring Fireball) Facebook will now show you exactly how it stalks you — even when you’re not using Facebook (The Washington Post) Google will shut down App Maker on January 19, 2021 (Venture Beat) Atari is opening eight video game hotels across the U.S. (Input Magazine) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vine has a spiritual successor in Byte, the new razr might have “bumps and lumps,” your anti-virus program might be selling all your clicks, Seamless might be inventing restaurants from whole cloth, and the AI algorithm that spotted the Wuhan virus early. Sponsors: Metalab.co MintMobile.com/ride Links: Vine reboot Byte officially launches (TechCrunch) Motorola on the Razr’s folding screen: ‘bumps and lumps are normal’ (The Verge) An AI Epidemiologist Sent the First Warnings of the Wuhan Virus (Wired) YouTube signs exclusive streaming deal for Activision e-sports like Call of Duty and Overwatch (The Verge) Online mattress retailer Casper IPO to raise $182.4 million (CNBC) Leaked Documents Expose the Secretive Market for Your Web Browsing Data (Motherboard) Seamless, Grubhub deliver confusion with mistaken restaurant listings (The San Francisco Chronicle) Alex Danco Tweet Thread Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my favorite newsletters—I’ve really gotta give you all a list of all the newsletters I subscribe to if you’re interested at some point—one of my favorite newsletters is The New Consumer (subscribe here) by Dan Frommer. Dan published his own analysis of the Casper IPO, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to delve into the Casper financials in greater detail. But also: scandal marketing! Can brands be “cancelled”? And analysis of this week’s Netflix earnings. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quick Share is coming to challenge AirDrop, how iOS 13 has blown up location marketing, Google takes the wrapping of Dataset Search, an interesting eSports raise and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency BelovedRobot.com/nolowcode Links: Clayton Christensen, guru of disruptive innovation and Latter-day Saint leader, dies at 67 (DesertNews) Exclusive: Quick Share is Samsung’s alternative to AirDrop for Galaxy phones (XDADevelopers) Apple, Broadcom Strike $15 Billion Worth of Chip-Supply Deals (Bloomberg) Apple and Google’s tough new location privacy controls are working (Fast Company) Shlayer, No. 1 Threat for Mac, Targets YouTube, Wikipedia (ThreatPost) Google’s search engine for scientists upgraded for better data scouring (The Verge) Esports Training Site ProGuides Raises $5 Million In Seed Funding (Forbes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Inside the World's Highest-Stakes Industrial Hacking Contest (Wired) We’re Banning Facial Recognition. We’re Miss

More Samsung phone rumors, Match Group invests in safety features as a feature, the Bezos phone hack story gets a lot murkier, and everyone seems to have noticed that Google search has gotten crufty. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency ClearMe.com/techmeme Code: Techmeme Links: Samsung's new foldable phone already sounds way better than the Galaxy Fold (Mashable) New leak says the Galaxy S20's display will run at 60Hz by default (Android Central) Microsoft starts rolling out developer tools for its dual-screen Surface Duo Android phone (ZDNet) Match Group invests in Noonlight to power new safety features in Tinder and other dating apps (TechCrunch) Here Is the Technical Report Suggesting Saudi Arabia’s Prince Hacked Jeff Bezos’ Phone (Motherboard) Alex Stamos Tweet Storm Google’s ads just look like search results now (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The whole Jeff Bezos phone-got-hacked thing blows up into something crazy. That rumored “cheap” iPhone might be mere weeks away. Is Amazon Music almost as big as Apple Music? Cruise unveils the Origin self-driving car. And the first test of voting via smartphone in the US. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Capterra.com/ride Links: Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince' (The Guardian) Saudi’s MBS implicated in hacking of Jeff Bezos’s phone (Financial Times) UN calls for investigation into alleged Saudi crown prince involvement in Bezos phone hack (CNBC) New Low-Cost iPhone to Enter Mass Production in February (Bloomberg) Amazon Music subscriber numbers close in on Apple (Financial Times) Exclusive: Seattle-Area Voters To Vote By Smartphone In 1st For U.S. Elections (NPR) EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT CRUISE’S FIRST DRIVERLESS CAR WITHOUT A STEERING WHEEL OR PEDALS (The Verge) Netflix says Disney and Baby Yoda may have cut into the streaming service’s growth (Recode) Learn

Apple could have encrypted iCloud backups… but didn’t… ostensibly to play nice with the government? Getting an Uber from the airport is about to get more expensive. Digital media is actually making money??!! Is IGTV on the way out? Some interesting raises and (potentially) the most consequential lawsuit in Silicon Valley history. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency Zapier.com/ride Links: Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources (Reuters) Uber Tests Feature Allowing Some California Drivers to Set Fares (WSJ) A true digital media publishing breakthrough (Axios) Spotify in Early Talks to Buy Sports and Pop-Culture Outlet the Ringer (WSJ) Instagram drops IGTV button, but only 1% downloaded the app (TechCrunch) DARPA-backed Soft Robotics raises $23 million for autonomous grippers and sorters (VentureBeat) Berlin proptech Home raises €11 million to be tech-enabled middleman between owners and tenants (Tech.eu) Snyk raises $150 million at $1 billion valuation for