Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 05/06 – Give Us The Passwordless Future Already

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 TechMean Bride Home for Friday, May 6, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today with Apple, Google, and Microsoft now all signed up to offer Fido Alliance technology.

Starting point is 00:00:44 Are we about to hear about some big passwordless tech at all of the developers' conferences this summer? China wants the whole country to turn in their foreign-made laptops. Fortnite is available everywhere, including iOS thanks to Microsoft, and of course the weekend long-read suggestions. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Apple, Google, and Microsoft. plans to offer the Fido Alliance's passwordless technology on websites and apps using fingerprint

Starting point is 00:01:12 readers, face scanners, and smartphones, basically using everything that they do. So at long, long last, is the passwordless future we've been hearing about so much over the years finally coming to pass? And is it coming to pass this year? Quoting C-NET. The Fido Alliance, Fido is short for Fast Identity Online, said Thursday, it's working with the three companies, to begin offering passwordless technology to websites and apps. Instead of using unreliable password logins, apps, and websites could identify who you are with a fingerprint reader, face scanner, or even your phone. Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central

Starting point is 00:01:54 to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience, all with the goal of keeping users' personal information safe. Kurt Knight, Apple's senior director of platform product marketing said in a statement, similarly, Microsoft's corporate vice president for identity program management, Alex Simmons said any viable product needs to be safer, easier, and faster than what we use today. The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives. He said in a statement, Google as well, said it's excited for the day, quote, the world can safely move away from the risk and hassle of passwords, end quote. The announcement by the tech companies and Fido underscore the industry's efforts to

Starting point is 00:02:34 fight the seemingly never-ending onslaught of hacking attacks that lead to theft of people's personal information, financial fraud, and security breaches at companies and governments around the world. While Fido is already used by hundreds of device makers and service providers, the alliance said that making its technology interoperable with more websites and apps will make it more appealing. Fido said it expects the new capabilities announced Thursday to arrive on devices powered by software from Apple, Google, and Microsoft in the next year. We'll likely hear more over the next month, during which all three companies typically hold their annual developer conferences to discuss new features they're planning to offer, end quote. So we've discussed a lot about the tech cold war between China and the West.

Starting point is 00:03:20 China makes all the gadgets, the West designs, and wants to buy. China is strategically strong in 5G and networking, and Chinese startups are leaping ahead in terms of commerce, even social networking, with the likes of TikTok. And this doesn't even get into the competition in green tech and, AI and self-driving and all that. But the West still has a stranglehold on the Silicon and a lot of the technology, especially the software technology that goes into everything, as lots of Chinese companies found out when they got locked out of using Android or US-designed chips. So China's big weakness is Silicon, which they are doing a crash program to remedy and software platforms. China has already been working to create their own mobile software platforms out of sheer necessity.

Starting point is 00:04:05 again, see the Android situation, and now the next logical step. According to Bloomberg sources, China has ordered government agencies and state-back companies to replace foreign PCs with domestic ones running local OSES within two years. Staff were asked after the week-long May break to turn in foreign PCs for local alternatives that run on operating software developed domestically people familiar with the plan said. The exercise, which was mandated by central government authorities, is likely to eventually replace at least 50 million PCs on a central government level alone, they said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a sensitive matter. The decision advances China's decade-long campaign to replace imported

Starting point is 00:04:46 technology with local alternatives, a sweeping effort to reduce its dependence on geopolitical rivals, such as the U.S. for everything from semiconductors to servers and phones. It's likely to directly affect sales by HP and Dell, the country's biggest PC brands after local champion, Lenovo. The push-to-replace forum suppliers is part of a long. strongstanding effort to wean China off its reliance on American technology, a vulnerability exposed after sanctions against companies like Huawei, hammered local firms and businesses. That initiative has accelerated since 2021 when the Chinese central government quietly empowered a secretive government-backed organization to vet and approve local suppliers in sensitive areas from cloud to semiconductors.

Starting point is 00:05:25 The latest PC replacement project also reflects Beijing's growing concerns around information security, as well as a confidence in homegrown hardware. The world's biggest laptop and server makers today include Lenovo, Huawei, and InSper, while local developers such as Kingsoft and standard software have made rapid strides in office software against the likes of Microsoft and Adobe, end quote. Microsoft has partnered with Epic to offer Fortnite for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming with or without a subscription across Android, iOS, iPadOS, and Windows PCs, quoting CNET. Since Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming launched two years ago, more than 10 million people worldwide have streamed games through the service. That number is likely to jump a bit higher

Starting point is 00:06:13 as a result of a partnership Microsoft struck with Epic Games to offer Epic's hit title Fortnite for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming. The move will effectively let people play Fortnite in a way similar to how they stream videos from companies like Netflix, regardless of how beefy their gaming device is. Unlike previous efforts, Microsoft said this agreement applies to anyone who wants to play with or without a subscription. Gammers will be able to play on an iPhone or iPad or a device powered by Google's Android software, even though both Apple and Google have banned Fortnite from their respective app stores amid an ongoing legal dispute. Microsoft said it plans to add more games to its new free-to-play streaming service, particularly for mobile devices. The company said,

Starting point is 00:06:51 Xbox GamePass Ultimate Subscribers who pay $15 per month for access to hundreds of games for download and streaming, currently have access to more than 150 streaming games that work with touchscreen mobile devices. So far, the company added 20% of Xbox gaming users use Touch exclusively to play, end quote. I guess doing things like plastering your name on sporting events around the world really does work. Retail cryptoexchange, crypto.com says it now has over 50 million users up five times from late 2020, and it expects to hit 100 million users by the end of this year, quoting Axios. One big difference between crypto.com and larger volume rivals like Coinbase and FTX is that

Starting point is 00:07:37 the company has grown without ever taking an outside investment, quote. We've obviously had a tremendous amount of interest with some very generous offers, but cash hasn't been a limiting factor given the amount of revenue the company produces. Founder Chris Marzalek says, adding that the company now has over 4,000 employees and is investing heavily in its nascent NFT marketplace. Marzalek doesn't rule out eventually taking funding or even going public, but to IPO, he wants to wait until the company is, quote, better able to withstand market pressures. That would mean diversifying a revenue stream that's currently dominated by trading fees into

Starting point is 00:08:10 areas like crypto payment infrastructure. Crypto.com should get a lot of brand recognition this weekend as title sponsor of the big Formula One race in Miami, and then over the summer as a FIFA World Cup sponsor. The company also recently put its name on the basketball arena in Los Angeles, as it and competitors leverage pro sports to increase crypto adoption, end quote. Time for the weekend long read suggestions, and again, another deep dive profile of Sheehan, now the number three or whatever private company in the world in terms of valuation. and vis-vis what we were talking about earlier, another win for the Chinese startup scene. Quoting Wired, Sheehan emerged very quickly, says Shang-Lu, a professor at the University of Delaware

Starting point is 00:08:57 who studies the global textile and apparel industry. Two years ago, three years ago, nobody had ever heard of them. Earlier this year, the investment firm Piper Sandler surveyed 7,000 American teens about their favorite e-commerce sites and found that while Amazon was the clear winner, Sheehan came in second. The company claims the largest slice around 28% of the U.S. fast-fashioned In April, Sheehan reportedly raised $1 billion to $2 billion in private funding. The company was valued at $100 billion, higher than the combined worth of fast-fashioned titans H&N and Zara, and higher than that of any private company in the world besides SpaceX and ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, end quote. Next, I found another angle to the whole Elon Musk story. How about a profile of Elon's so-called

Starting point is 00:09:39 personal fixer, his major domo, if you will, a man named Jared Birchall, quote. Berchall 47 is one of the most important people in Musk's circle. He's at the helm of the Tesla leader's family office called accession, along with his nascent foundation, and manages many of Musk's personal endeavors. People who know Birchall describe a mild-mannered guy who's essentially the fixer for a capricious billionaire who frequently elicits controversy. That role has grown in complexity as Musk's wealth has ballooned from the mere billions to tens of billions to hundreds of billions. Most recently, it's involved helping by Twitter with a complex financing package that initially included a record $12.5 billion loan tied to Musk's stake in Tesla. He was part of the

Starting point is 00:10:25 tiny circle interacting with Wall Street to line up the loans that were key to securing the deal, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. While he lacked the experience of marshalling multi-billion dollar takeovers, Bertrand helped corral the banks with the assistance of his former employer Morgan Stanley to nail down the financing, said the person describing him as no nonsense and easy to deal with, end quote. Then I believe we've done stories in the past about how nowadays, if you buy, say, a tractor, you kind of really don't own it because John Deere or whomever can remotely lock you out of it at any time. Well, think of that fact in relation to the war in Ukraine, quoting CNN. Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen

Starting point is 00:11:08 all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership and shipped it all to Chechniton. according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area. But after a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment because it had been locked remotely. Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked. It was last tracked to the village of Zakhan Yurt in Chechnya. The equipment ferry to Chechnya, which included combine harvesters, can also be controlled. remotely. When the invaders drove the stolen harvesters to Chechnya, they realized that they could not

Starting point is 00:11:47 even turn them on because the harvesters were locked remotely, a contact said. The equipment now appears to be languishing at a farm near Grozny, but the contact said that, quote, it seems that the hijackers have found consultants in Russia who are trying to bypass the protection, end quote. Maybe you saw on social media that video that went viral of a robot with eerily lifelike facial expressions, maybe a month ago? Well, the Verge took a visit to the human, I mean, robot factory, where that came from, where they make the most cutting-edge life-like androids around. Quote, it's these emotions, curiosity, fear, excitement that are engineered arts, stock, and trade. The company makes its money selling its robots for entertainment and education. They're used by

Starting point is 00:12:32 academics for research, by marketing teams, for publicity stunts, and placed in museums, airports, and malls to welcome visitors. Anywhere you've got a big crowd of people to interact with, says Jackson. The machines can run on autopilot reacting to passers-by with preset banter, or they can be controlled remotely with unseen handlers responding to queries from the crowd, as in this video filmed at CES. In the near future, though, engineered arts wants to equip its robots with more sophisticated chatbot software that would let them respond fluidly to queries without any human assistance. More than entertainers, though, these robots are heralds of the future.

Starting point is 00:13:06 As technology improves and Androids become more realistic, the question of how we relate to such machines is going to become more interesting. Are effing and fighting the only two responses that we can imagine, end quote. Obviously something, something Westworld. And look, I'm not sure how much of this is out from behind the paywall. But if you want a better understanding of the stock market bloodbath for tech stocks that happened this week, it's still going on this morning as I'm writing these words. I couldn't recommend Eric Newcomer's most recent substack post enough. He basically runs down the whole history of this where we're at now. We've been covering this not from the perspective of our collective 401Ks, which are suffering as well,

Starting point is 00:13:50 but what the wipeout in tech stocks could mean for workers at these companies, both in the form of underwater stock options and potentially even layoffs, but also for what startups could or could not be funded in the current, let's say, non-bull environment. Quote, layoffs are becoming common. Wednesday, the B2B finance startup Main Street announced that it was laying off 30% of employees. Also on Wednesday, the information reported that the celebrity video app cameo is laying off 80 employees, about a quarter of its workforce. Meanwhile, this week, Insider reported that Facebook had imposed a hiring freeze.

Starting point is 00:14:23 At the same time, the pragmatic engineer has reported on employees having their offers rescinded. The biggest question now is whether we're simply going to witness startup valuation multiples contract or if we will also see revenue growth slash fundamentals falter across the board. Startups that sell to other startups could be in trouble. We haven't really seen how SaaS businesses perform in a major correction, how sticky will their services be, or will companies come to regret swapping large upfront payments for easier to cancel subscriptions? On the valuation side, the collapse of lifts stock price down by a third after it reported earnings this week, has to be worrying for private online to offline businesses. Everyone expects to see consolidation among GoPuffs competitors. Companies

Starting point is 00:15:06 that are valued based on their gross merchandise volume could see those valuations crash as investors chase profits. In March 2020, the pandemic gave Silicon Valley a headfake downturn. Investors who pulled back missed a great moment to make money. How long will this pull back last? How high will interest rates go? How far does the stock market have to fall? End quote. Buckle up out there, everybody. As mentioned yesterday, there will be no weekend bonus episodes this weekend at all. Chris and I are both on family time this weekend, but we will have something for you next weekend. Talk to you on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 05/06 – Give Us The Passwordless Future Already

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