Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 06/14 - Are Foldable Phones Cursed?

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 Techmeme ride home for Friday, June 14th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today are foldable phones cursed, and will we ever see one? Facebook coin might be coming as early as next week. The hottest crypto is up 330% year-to-date, but you've probably never heard of it, some IPOs to report on, and of course the weekend long-read suggestions, and, by the way, a test of the podcast classified ad idea. Here's what you missed today. in the world of tech. Well, are you starting to get the sense that we might not actually ever see foldable phones this

Starting point is 00:01:14 year after all? I mean, I know we have seen them, but I mean that in the sense of actually being able to take delivery of one, seeing them in the wild. Huawei has delayed the launch of its foldable mate X phone from June to September. Quote, a spokesperson for the Chinese technology giant told CNBC on Friday that the official launch will take place in September. He said that the company was doing extra testing with mobile carriers around the world and developers to make sure that their apps work when the device is unfolded. Huawei's spokesperson said the company was more cautious.

Starting point is 00:01:48 After Samsung's foldable device, the Galaxy Folded began to break when tested by reviewers in April. Samsung and some of the carriers selling the Galaxy Fold have canceled pre-orders that consumers had already placed. We don't want to launch a product to destroy our reputation, the spokesperson told CMB. see, end quote, which, LOL. But yeah, there is that nagging little question about whether this technology is quite ready for prime time yet. But also there's this other issue, as the Verge points out, at least in the case of the Mate X, that issue being that whole trade war business, which probably hasn't helped matters for Huawei either, quoting the Verge. whether or not the MaidX, if and when it ships in September, will come with Android, is unclear.

Starting point is 00:02:36 CNBC says that the MaidX will ship with Android because the phone was, quote, launched before Huawei was placed on the entity list. But the Walshie Journal says that this issue is still being discussed. The Verge has reached out to Huawei for clarification. Alternatively, the phone might ship with Huawei's own mobile OS, which it has been developing for years. A spokesperson for the firm told CNBC that it would prefer to go with Google's software, but add if we are forced to do it by ourselves, we are ready. We can do it in the next six to nine months, end quote. And what of that other foldable entry, the Galaxy Fold.

Starting point is 00:03:10 Well, AT&T has become the second retailer after Best Buy to cancel pre-orders for the fold. This report comes from Tom's Guide, who got a cancellation email from AT&T, quote, the email from the company says that orders are being canceled because, quote, Samsung delayed the release of the phone, which means that we can't ship your phone, end quote. The email also promises a $100 AT&T promotional card which will be sent to pre-order customers within 60 days, end quote. So new podcast Wager Watch, I guess, will we see a foldable phone shipping generally to consumers by the end of 2019 or not? I'm taking odds now, and the betting lines are still open. So one thing it looks like we are going to see, and pretty soon, is Facebook's cryptocurrency.

Starting point is 00:04:01 or I guess we're likely to see at least that white paper that was rumored as soon as next week, in fact, according to the Wall Street Journal. And it looks like Facebook has been successful in courting some big names to back the upcoming coin, including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Stripe, and Uber. Quoting the journal, the financial and e-commerce companies, venture capitalists and telecommunications firms will invest around $10 million each in a consortium that will govern the digital coin called Libra, according to people, familiar with the matter. The money would be used to fund the creation of the coin, which will be pegged to a basket of government-issued currencies to avoid the wild swings that have dogged other cryptocurrencies, they said. Facebook plans to release a white paper introducing the coin next week, according to people familiar with its plans, adopting a format popularized by Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. The company has asked consortium members to

Starting point is 00:04:54 co-sign the paper, some of the people said, end quote. Speaking of crypto, as we've mentioned, the whole crypto space seems to be shaking off the nuclear winter of the last year or so, at least to some degree. And in fact, the hottest crypto so far this year is up 330% and has a market cap right now of 8.4 billion. But guess what? Its name is not Bitcoin. The coin in question is called Lightcoin. Why is Lightcoin surging? Quoting Bloomberg.

Starting point is 00:05:26 The rally can be partially attributed to Lightcoin's upcoming. coming halving halving h-a-l-v-ing also known as the havinging whereby the number of coins awarded to so-called miners is slashed by 50%. The idea is that a cut in supply will not only drive up its price but will also prevent an erosion in value. Miners currently receive 25 new light coins per block but following the halving which is expected to fall on August 6th they will receive 12.5. Halving typically happens every four years, and the run-up to it has in the past coincided with a rally in the underlying tokens. Four years ago, when the last light coin having occurred, the coin gained around 60% in the three months beforehand, according to data from coinmarketcap.com. And the phenomenon

Starting point is 00:06:18 isn't isolated to light coin either. Bitcoin is set to undergo its own halving in May 2020, and its biggest proponents are already seizing on the drop in supply as a catalyst for further gains, end quote. Oh, and one more quick thing to update you on a topic that you know I'm keeping my eye on because it makes me nervous. Remember Triton, that bit of malware that's out there in the wild that can attack things like the safety and override systems and power plants and chemical plants and the like. Yeah, well, hackers known to have used Triton in the past, in fact, they're sometimes known as Xenotime or sometimes even referred to as the Triton actor, have been spotted probing the U.S. power grid. In fact, they've been spotted probing the network of at least 20 different

Starting point is 00:07:07 U.S. electric system targets. Quote, there's no sign that the hackers are anywhere near triggering a power outage, not to mention a dangerous physical accident in the U.S., but the mere fact that such a notoriously aggressive group has turned its sights on the U.S. grid merits attention, says Joe Sloick. An industrial control systems focused security researcher at Dragos, who has tracked Zeno Time. Quote, Zeno Time has already proven itself willing not only to act within an industrial environment, but to do so in a quite concerning fashion, targeting safety systems for potential plant disruption and at minimum, accepting the risk that disruption could result in physical damage and even harmed individuals, Slawik told Wired. Zeno Times scans of the U.S. grid,

Starting point is 00:07:51 he adds, represent initial baby steps towards bringing that same sort of destructive sabotage to American soil. What concerns me is that the actions observed to date are indicative of the preliminary actions required to set up for a future intrusion and potentially a future attack, end quote. So, I guess there's that. A couple of medium profile tech IPOs to tell you about Chewy, an online pet product retailer owned by PetSmart, opened up 64% on its first day of trading after raising $1 billion in its IPO. Chui is now valued at $14.3 billion. Quote, Chui, founded in 2011 by Ryan Cohen and Michael Day, calls itself the largest pureplay pet retailer in the United States. It has distinguished itself from many of its competitors

Starting point is 00:08:43 with customer service that includes 24-7 access and two-day shipping of online orders, end quote. And freelance services marketplace Fiverr closed up 89% on its first day of trading after raising $11 million in its IPO. That gave Fiver a valuation of about $650 million. What's interesting is that a lot of market watchers were looking to Fiverr as a sort of bellwether to take the temperature of the market appetite for IPOs going forward. Quoting Owen Williams, after a frothy Uber IPO, Fiverr seemed like the tech company that might sink the market with terrible revenue and long-term prospects. Apparently, the market disagrees and the share price soared more than 80% on its first day.

Starting point is 00:09:27 Everything is fine? I won't say the word bubble, I promise, end quote. Time for the weekend long read suggestions. Let's start with the fun story of the restaurateur who took on Yelp and sort of won. In 2014, chef David Seratini advertised a special that would forever change his fate. Anyone who left his restaurant a one-star review on Yelp would get 25% off a pizza. See, his Bay Area-based Italian joint, Botto Bistro, was at a crossroads. Like many small businesses, it was enslaved to the whims of

Starting point is 00:10:06 online reviewers whose public dispatches could make or break its reputation. He'd had enough. It was time to pry the stars from the cold, grubby hands of Yelpers and take control of his own destiny. But the move would set Serentini at the center of a longstanding battle between Yelp and disgruntled business owners, a battle including cries of extortion, review manipulation, and predatory advertising tactics, end quote. Next up, Ars Technica takes a look at EverQuest, the progenitor of the modern M-M-O-R-R-R-R-R RPG game, born 20 years ago in the dial-up era, but still going strong today. Quote, no, this isn't about World of Warcraft, that game only turns 15 in 2019.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Before there was WOW, there was the MMO Pioneer EverQuest. This sword and sorcery-based game was developed by a small company, 989 Studios, but it eventually reached its pinnacle under Sony Online Entertainment after SOE acquired that studio roughly a year after the game's launch. Today, EQ marches on with a dedicated player base and another developer, Daybreak Games, at the helm, end quote. It's largely a story of the mistakes made and the interesting lessons learned

Starting point is 00:11:19 to point to how games like this can have longevity as games are seemingly now at a crossroads moving into an always connected and even streaming world. And frankly, this is timely as all get-out because as E3 closes down this week, Polygon has a look back at the very first E3 held in 1995 and how it almost didn't happen. Again, as gaming seems to be at a transitional moment, it's worth looking at one of the forces in gaming for the last 20 years. Quote, that first E3 back in 1995 was an enormous success attracting large numbers of visitors,

Starting point is 00:11:59 fat profits, and massive media exposure. It was a pivotal moment in gaming, history, set between an era dominated by the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and the world of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. New games, new technologies, and new ideas were everywhere. It was also an era of experimentation of the 32X, 3D, NeoGeo CD, Virtual Boy, and Atari Jaguar. Like all E3s, it was a show about the games that would define the year ahead. Visitors were treated to the likes of Krono Trigger, descent, Donkey Kong land, earthbound, killer instinct, Panzer, Dragoon, Rayman, Resident Evil, Ridge Racer, Vector Man, Virtua Fighter, and Wing Commander 3. The games industry attracted celebrities, too. Michael Jackson was at the Sony party.

Starting point is 00:12:43 Seale sang at the Nintendo Party. Steven Spielberg and Sylvester Stallone showed up. Over the years, E3 has changed in more ways than can be counted. It's now firmly part of the gaming establishment, an icon of social media buzz. It's difficult to recall how bold the show was, how far it created a moment of affirmation for a burgeoning industry, which desired that its power be recognized. It was also a rebellion against gaming's marginalization by older, more established industries.

Starting point is 00:13:10 It was the point at which gaming ceased to be a branch of consumer electronics and began its life as an entertainment industry, end quote. And I don't know why, but I keep finding these stories fascinating. Cryptocurrency is supposed to be completely virtual, right? Nothing tangible, nothing real world. That's why. It's crazy to me how much real world geography

Starting point is 00:13:32 and, I don't know, resource concerns have an outside influence on crypto. I love these stories of crypto miners, say setting up camp in upstate New York because there is cheap electricity because of an unregulated hydroelectric plant nearby or something. The latest place that you wouldn't expect that crypto entrepreneurs have decamped to, it's Wyoming. But this time, it's for other real world reasons. regulatory and tax reasons. In Wyoming, certain digital tokens are exempt from state securities rules and even state property taxes. Quote, Wyoming's transformation into a blockchain booster

Starting point is 00:14:15 is somewhat legendary in cryptocurrency circles. Until recently, strict money transmitter laws meant residents there couldn't even use a Coinbase account. But over the past two years, Wyoming has enacted 13 blockchain laws with a raft of other proposals on the way. The question is, what does the country's least populous state, far from tech hubs, and long associated with an unhealthy dependency on resource extraction, want with blockchain? End quote. And I find myself increasingly fascinated by the esports space, because it's an industry that will probably inevitably be huge, but is right before our very eyes at this very moment, an industry completely in its nascent stage. We don't yet know who the big companies and entrepreneurs in this space will be. But Business Week has a look at Tucker Roberts, age 29, who is looking to become maybe the Jerry Jones of the esports space.

Starting point is 00:15:07 And he'll have some resources to maybe make that happen because his father is Brian Roberts, co-founder of Comcast. And finally today, a tech player we don't talk that much about anymore that might be on the cusp of reinvention and a turnaround. ZDNet looks at Lenovo's ambitious plan to move its business. beyond computing. As Lenovo's chairman and CEO Yang, Yang Kwing, told Zedinet in Beijing, quote, this is still a $200 billion industry. If you try to find another $200 billion industry, it's not easy, end quote. Sure enough, Lenovo is big in PCs, which deliver over three quarters of its revenue and has recently returned its smartphone group to profitability. Next in line for the turnaround treatment is the Data Center Group, which has seen

Starting point is 00:15:54 double-digit revenue growth for the past five quarters, but has yet to make a profit. So can Lenovo bring together PCs, smartphones, and data centers into a comprehensive strategy, end quote. That's all for today, everybody. Full slate of weekend bonus episodes this week, both Saturday and Sunday on two somewhat disparate topics. So look for those. And continue listening to the end of the show right now after the music stops, because we're going to test out the format of a podcast classified ad, as I said. One of the TechMeme editors has a new MacCube. app that he wants to get the word out about. So we're going to use that to see how classifieds might

Starting point is 00:16:37 work. I think a normal classifieds ad would be shorter than what I'm about to read. I'll probably limit them to 150 words or something like that. But yeah, let me know what you think. This has been what I wanted to offer folks for a while now. Some form of communicating to the audience for smaller app and project launches, for job openings, for come and get me. I'm looking for work and I'm talented shoutouts, that sort of thing. Requests for help. Who knows? Anyway, all feedback welcome and talk to you on Monday. So here's the first ever podcast Classified Ad,

Starting point is 00:17:16 the TechMeme Right Home Backpages, if you will. It's not very often that I can say this, but this is an app that does something completely unique for Mac users. Current Key Stats is free to download in the Mac App Store. As the name implies, current key stats gives you stats. specifically about how much time you spend on your computer across your various apps, but there's a big twist. There's this feature on Max called Spaces that few people use,

Starting point is 00:17:44 but Current Key makes practical and powerful. Max let you split your work across multiple virtual desktops. Current Key helps you manage those by giving each space a unique name and the ability to jump directly from one to another via a simple drop-down menu. No more needing to swipe up into mission control. So how does that tie back into Stap? Well, Current Key Stats tells you how you spent time across those spaces in addition to your apps. So the time you spent in a desktop named Side Project shows up separately from time spent in one named work or one named recreation.

Starting point is 00:18:19 It's really kind of mind-blowing. The stats are fine-grained with a ton of custom settings. And unlike many other app stats trackers, this app respects your privacy with all the data staying locally on your device. Again, the app is free forever. Check it out at Current Kee. current key.com slash ride home and you'll get a full 80% off the pro stats upgrade. Again, that's currentkey.com slash ride home.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 06/14 - Are Foldable Phones Cursed?

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