Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 04/03 - It’s An 80’s Style Free HBO Bonanza!

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

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) In coronavirus fight, oft-criticized Facebook data aids U.S. cities, states (Reuters) PRIVACY EXPERTS SAY RESPONSIBLE CORONAVIRUS SURVEILLANCE IS POSSIBLE (The Intercept) Exclusive: iPhone 9 launch imminent, 2020 ‘iPhone SE’ in red, white, and black with up to 256GB (9to5Mac) Tesla soars on delivery numbers -- company delivered 88,400 vehicles in Q1 (CNBC) A third prototype of SpaceX’s Starship rocket bursts on the test stand (The Verge) Airbnb lowers internal valuation by 16% to $26bn (FT) HBO Will Stream 500 Hours of Free Programming, Including Full Seasons of ‘Veep,’ ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Silicon Valley’ (Variety) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Google Data Centers’ Secret Cost: Billions of Gallons of Water (Bloomberg Green) Microsoft Edge is becoming the browser you didn’t know you needed (Ars Technica) The Xbox Series X master plan (Polygon) From courts to consoles: With live sports canceled, pro athletes join the streaming surge (The Washington Post) Telemedicine, Once a Hard Sell, Can’t Keep Up With Demand (WSJ) The Medical News Site That Saw the Coronavirus Coming Months Ago (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Friday, April 3rd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Tech companies are, in fact, stepping up to track COVID-19. We have a name finally for the new low-end iPhone. Tesla stock soars, but the SpaceX Starship doesn't. Watch some free HBO this weekend, and of course, the weekend long-read suggestions. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. A whole bunch of stories bubbled up this morning about people in tech actively using data to track COVID. related things. Google, for example, is using aggregated, anonymized location data from 131 countries to show which places are complying with social distancing and which aren't, quoting the verge.

The reports use data from people who have opted in to storing their location history with Google to help illustrate the degree to which people are adhering to government instructions to shelter in place and where possible work from home. Quote, as global communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increasing emphasis on public health strategies like social distancing measures to slow the rate of transmission, the company said in a blog post. In Google Maps, we use aggregated anonymized data showing how busy certain types of places are, helping identify when a local business tends to be the most crowded. We have heard from public health officials that this same type of aggregated, anonymized data could be helpful as they make critical decisions to combat

COVID-19, end quote. Anyone can view the reports, which, as I said, cover 131 countries to start, quote, in many locations users can search for more regional data, examining reports for individual states, provinces, and counties. A sample report viewed by the verge for California, where a shelter-in-place order has been in effect since March 19th, showed steep declines to retail and recreation locations and transit stations with a moderate uptick in time spent at home. Data covers the past 48 to 72 hours, Google said, and the percentage changes reflect the difference between movement this month and late January, end quote.

And researchers are using Facebook's location data to provide daily updates to U.S. cities and states evaluating social distancing effectiveness, quoting Reuters. Facebook confirmed it was sharing the data as part of its nearly year-old disease prevention maps program, which has also aided efforts to increase vaccination rates in Malawi and track cholera outbreaks in Mozambique. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told reporters last month that he would not consider sharing Facebook's data directly with governments. The Mobility Data Network has become one of the first initiatives to harness mobile data for the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, an approach deployed early in places like China, South Korea, and much of Europe, but scarcely used so far in the United States, end quote. Civil liberties activists are actually saying that a data-driven approach to pandemic response can be compensated.

with individual rights, but it would also be a good idea to build in limits and require justifications ahead of time every step of the way, quoting the intercept. Whatever decisions or policies are implemented with respect to responding to this catastrophe have to be those that are demanded by public health officials and experts, as opposed to others in government, particularly people in the security or law enforcement business, said Mohamed Tazar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California. This said Teilhard will help ensure that governments only collect information that is actually useful rather than making a mad grab for anything that might potentially help.

Quote, governments tend to have a pretty voracious appetite when it comes to data without really understanding the limitations of the information. And how and what the use cases are for responding to crises like this one, he said, end quote. 9 to 5 Macs says it has learned that Apple's new entry-level iPhone, expected later this month, will be called iPhone SE and will be available in white, black, and red,

with 64, 128, and 256 gigabyte storage options. Quote, Apple's marketing names are perhaps the most protected component of new iPhones. So we've used two nicknames to reference the rumored iPhone 8 replacement so far,

iPhone SE2 and iPhone 9. Based on the new information 9-5 Mac has learned, Apple will simply call the new entry-level model iPhone SE while referencing the new hardware as the 2020 version. Apple originally used the iPhone SE marketing name for the 4-inch model that used the iPhone 5S body with the camera and processor from the iPhone 6S. We expect the new model to use the same ship as the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro plus Apple's A-13 processor.

That's two generations up from the A-11 bionic chip inside the iPhone 8, end quote. Oh my God. Is tech earnings season kicking off again already? Tesla started things off last night by reporting 88,400 vehicles delivered in Q1, which was enough to send that company's stock soaring. Quoting, CNBC, without COVID, 19-related shutdowns, analyst's consensus view was that Tesla could have delivered 95,000 vehicles, including 81,000 combined Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 14,000 combined Model S and Model X cars.

This quarter marked Tesla's first producing and delivering the Model Y, the company's newest vehicle. However, the company did not break out numbers for sales or production of the crossover SUV. During its year-end earnings call for 2019, Tesla execs told investors, should be able to, quote, comfortably exceed 500,000 deliveries in 2020, end quote. In less positive Elon Musk-related news, a third prototype of Space X's Starship Rocket has broken apart on the test stand during a pressure test, quoting the verge. Early this morning, the test vehicle crumpled and then collapsed in on itself, after it had been filled up with super cold propellant, according to a video live stream

recorded by locals in the area. It's yet another very visible test failure for SpaceX's Starship, which is supposed to launch people and cargo to deep space destination someday. SpaceX lost one Starship test article in March when the vehicle imploded during a similar pressure test. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk blamed that failure on a bad puck at the base of the vehicle. Another Starship prototype also burst apart in November during a pressure test, though the company mostly brushed off that loss. Before this morning's failure, Musk noted on Twitter that some valves leaked during an earlier test, something the team had to fix before retesting. As for why the Starship vehicle ultimately burst this morning, Musk says a, quote,

test configuration mistake may be to blame, though the team will do a data review this morning, end quote. The Financial Times is reporting that Airbnb is lowering its internal valuation of itself to $26 billion, a 16% drop since its last funding round, quoting the FT. The new figure reflects the sharp drop-off in bookings, as travelers have been forced to stay home, with estimates suggesting Airbnb bookings were down as much as 90% in the most severely hit markets, according to data from AirDNA, an independent monitoring company. Staff were told of the new valuation by Chief Executive Brian Chesky at a company-wide meeting on Thursday, a person familiar with the presentation told the Financial Times,

Airbnb was last valued privately at $31 billion after closing a reported $1 billion in funding in September 2017. Since then, however, secondary sales of indirect stakes in the company, where buyers gain rights to proceeds from a future initial public offering or sale, have suggested the company may have been worth more than $40 billion at the end of 2019, as reported by the Financial Times. As it looks for more ways to raise capital, Airbnb has held conversations with new and existing investors to consider a late-stage funding round, a source familiar with those discussions said, though no firm decisions have been made. The company recently met its bankers to request an extension to its $1 billion credit line, end quote.

News you can use right now, this very weekend. HBO is offering more than 500 hours of free programming, including The Sopranos and Succession, starting today for a limited time via HBO Now and HBO Go. Quoting Variety. HBO is unlocking its biggest trove of free programming ever, in a goodwill gesture as people look for a diversion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Warner Media-owned premium cabler is making almost 500 hours of programming available to stream for free without ads for a limited time on HBO Now and HBO Go services

without a subscription starting this Friday, April 3rd. The list of free programming includes every episode of nine HBO series, The Sopranos, Veep, Succession, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Ballers, Barry, Silicon Valley, and True Blood. Also streaming for free are 20 Warner Bros. movies in HBO's current catalog, including Pokemon Detective Pikachu, the Lego Movie 2, the second part, and Crazy Stupid Love, as well as 10 HBO documentaries and docu-series, including McMillians and the case against Anan Syed. notably, however, HBO mega-hit Game of Thrones is absent from the free streaming fiesta as are recent hits including Westworld, Big Little Lies, Euphoria, and Chernobyl, end quote.

HBO is doing this with the accompanying promotional campaign hashtag stay-home box office, and all you have to do is download the HBO Now or Go apps today, though this is only available in the U.S. This reminds me of the good old days of HBO free previews, those glorious weekends, when suddenly you could watch HBO for free, and you rushed to tape Die Hard 2 on a VHS tape, well, you could. 80s kids will know what I'm talking about. Time for the weekend long read suggestions. First up, we know that data centers require a ton of power to operate,

but what this Bloomberg piece also presupposes is that they require a ton of water, too. Quote, in Red Hook, Texas, a town about 20 miles south of Dallas, Google wants as much as 1.46 billion gallons of water a year for a new data center by 2021, according to a legal filing. Ellis County, which includes Red Oak and roughly 20 other towns, will need almost 15 billion gallons this year for everything else, from irrigation to residential use, data from the Texas Water Development Board show. Many parts of Texas are already seeing high water demand, according to Venki Udomari, director of the Water Resources Center at Texas Tech University.

Quote, with climate change, we are expected to have more prolonged droughts, he said. These kinds of water-intensive operations add to the local stress, end quote. So inviting a data center to your community for the jobs might end up being not so good if your water table gets depleted, I guess. Ars Technica says Microsoft Edge is becoming the browser you didn't know you needed. New features, things like collections, vertical tags, and an immersive reader view can actually be so compelling. It might be time to give the browser a try. Amazing what happens when you prioritize and invest in web browser development. Ours breaks down

some of the new features including the password monitors, tracking protections, and something called SmartCopy, which looks pretty compelling to me. A lot of these features are not available right now, but are coming soon. So check this piece if, like me, you've been at least cautiously and curiously in the market for a new web browser for a while. The next-gen console wars are gearing up, and Polygon looks at Microsoft's master plan for the Xbox Series X. Quote, as a piece of hardware, the Xbox Series X is a significant technological step up from the Xbox one, but the central point of its introduction has little to do with sharper looking games and faster loading times. This generation is going to be transformative in

terms of how people play rather than what they play. In interviews with leading analysts, we've tried to piece together Microsoft's current thinking about gaming in the next decade and how the company is approaching the Xbox Series X, not merely as a new console, but as a component of a much wider attempt to broaden the company's appeal in gaming, end quote. And yes, I did try my best to find mostly non-corona related stuff this week, but what are you going to do? The Washington Post looks at how with live sports canceled, pro athletes are increasingly joining the streaming surge. Quote, even before the pandemic,

streaming was becoming an increasingly popular way for athletes to connect with fans. NBA players Leonard, Fox, and Hart have long been regular presences on Twitch where the conversation in the chat rooms feels intimate and the players are less guarded. Am I white? Leonard reads off the chat at one point. Yes, he answered with a chuckle.

during this new normal, streaming has become something more. It is part coping mechanism, perhaps the only way to maintain a sense of community during the pandemic. It's also one of the only ways to deliver new content to fans, many of whom are similarly locked in their homes. And it could also be a moment for gaming and streaming platforms to reach new relevance, end quote. The Wall Street Journal looks at how telemedicine, which has been struggling to get traction for decades, is suddenly having such success that it's testing the industry's capacity. Quote, companies like Teledoc and Doctor on Demand are racing to add doctors and bandwidth, while big firms like Microsoft add services.

Whether the flurry is a short-term response to the crisis or a more lasting shift in health care is still unknown. The largest standalone telemedicine service in the U.S., publicly traded Teladoc, has been slammed with calls. The Purchased New York-based company reported a 50% increase in service through March 20th compared with the week prior. It provides video consultations with a network of thousands of doctors through its app, charging subscription fees to insurers and large employers. It also offers individual consultations, end quote. And the New York Times has a profile of stat. The online-only health medical news publication started in 2015 by Red Sox owner John Hed. Henry, that has certainly come into its own recently. Believe me, it's become a must read for me every

day for the Coronavirus Morning Update podcast. The site has attracted nearly 30 million unique visitors this year, which is four to five times its usual traffic, said Rick Burke, the executive editor who oversees the editorial and business departments. Part of the reason for the surge is that, like many other publications, Statt has placed its pandemic coverage outside its paywall, but with a staff of roughly 30 reporters and editors well-versed in health and science, the site was well-positioned to cover an epoch-defining story. Quote, we're not seeing stories first because we're smarter, faster, or more savvy, said Jason Uckman, a managing editor.

It's just because this is the world we've been plugged into the whole time. We were built for this, end quote. That's all for this week. No weekend, bonus episodes this weekend, but I do have one lined up for next week. should have that in the bag soon in a matter of days. In the meantime, Penny has a quick update for you? Yes. In Zelda, we did three Divine Beast, and you heard me last time that I said we did two.

Now we did three, we had one more, and we downloaded something that is really cool. A motorcycle that can drive up hills and walls and other stuff and a traveling horse that you can go anywhere you want to go with you wherever you are if you need it. So you don't have to call the horse anymore and bye.