Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 08/23 - Are "Partners" Looking To Exit Libra?

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 Tech meme right home for Friday, August 23rd, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. YouTube shuts down channels over Hong Kong content. Some of Facebook's Libre partners are having second thoughts. The Wall Street Journal finds some shady items on Amazon. The reviews of the Galaxy Note 10 plus are in, and the weekend long-reads suggestions are in.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Google says it has shut down 210 YouTube channels after it's found that the channels were tied to misinformation campaigns related to the protests in Hong Kong. Earlier this week, as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations, we disabled 210 channels on YouTube when we discovered channels in this network behaved in a coordinated manner while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. Shane Huntley, Director of Software Engineering for Google Security's Threat Analysis Group, said in a blog post, we found use of VPNs, other methods to disguise the origin of these accounts and other activity commonly associated

Starting point is 00:01:41 with coordinated influence operations, end quote. CNBC notes, and I'm going to just quote here, Google stopped short of explicitly blaming the Chinese government for the misleading accounts, end quote. Sources are telling the Financial Times that at least three of Facebook's erstwhile Libra partners are discussing how to distance themselves from the cryptocurrency project amid increasing regulatory scrutiny. If you'll recall, there are 28 members of the Libra Association, including Visa, MasterCard, Uber, and Spotify, who have all ponied up $10 million to fund the project.

Starting point is 00:02:26 But, quoting the Financial Times, two of the project's founding backers told the Financial Times they were concerned about the regulatory spotlight and were considering cutting ties. Another backer said they were worried about publicly support. reporting Libra for fear of attracting the attention of agencies who oversee their own businesses. Quote, I think it's going to be difficult for partners who want to be seen as in compliance with their own regulators to be out there supporting Libra, one of the founding partners said. With Libra's backers not speaking out in support of the digital currency, Facebook in turn, has become exasperated by the members, according to two people close to the project. quote, Facebook is tired of being the only people putting their neck out, said one of the Libra backers. Both Facebook and the Libra Association declined to comment, end quote.

Starting point is 00:03:13 The implication in the story is that the various partners have been spooked by the intense pushback from the regulators, and Facebook is getting tired of being the only one out there with their neck on the line for the project. Here's one more quote from one of the unnamed partners. Quote, some of those conversations about regulation should have taken place before the launch to understand how regulators would think about this. So there wasn't so much pushback, end quote. Ah, yes, but you signed up with the move fast and break things crew. Careful behind the scenes, table setting and getting buy-in from stakeholders and regulators is not how they tend to do things, right? Again, I said it before.

Starting point is 00:03:58 it's not outside the realm of possibility that Libra never sees the light of day. I mean, I do think we'll see Libra come to reality at some point, but in what form and in how many places around the world is becoming a bigger question. So this is not good for Amazon from a completely new regulatory angle. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal found 4,152 items on Amazon for sale that we're were declared unsafe by federal agencies or are deceptively labeled or are banned by regulators. Among these items, at least 2,000 of the listings were for toys or medications which lacked warnings about risks to either children or health. Quote, the journal identified at least 157 items for sale that Amazon said it had banned, including sleeping mats. The Food and Drug Administration warns can suffocate infants.

Starting point is 00:05:01 The journal commissioned tests of 10 children's products. It bought on Amazon. Many promoted as, quote, Amazon's choice. Four failed tests based on federal safety standards, according to the testing company, including one with lead levels that exceeded federal limits. Of the 4,152 products of the journal identified 46% were listed as shipping from Amazon warehouses. After the journal brought the listings to Amazon's attention, 57% of the 4,152 listings had their wording altered or were taken down. Amazon said that it reviewed and addressed the listings the journal provided and that company policies require all products to comply with laws and regulations. Quote, safety is a top priority at Amazon, said a spokeswoman.

Starting point is 00:05:47 Amazon uses automated tools that scan hundreds of millions of items every few minutes to screen would-be sellers and block suspicious ones from registering and listing items, using the tools to block three billion items in 2018, she said, end quote. The way the journal has framed this investigation is interesting. The headline literally reads, Amazon has ceded control of its site, with the subhead saying, just like tech companies that have struggled to tackle misinformation on their platforms, Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers on its site, end quote. So again, it's been Amazon's alleged behavior with third parties that has drawn anti-competitive and antitrust scrutiny. And now it is Amazon's alleged in action policing those same third-party merchants that is drawing attention of a different kind. What sort of attention? Quote, this article raises real concerns about whether Amazon is profiting from widespread deception on its platform. Deceptive acts or practices can threaten our health.

Starting point is 00:06:52 safety and are unlawful under the FTC Act, end quote. That was a tweet from just this morning by Rohit Chopra, the commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. The Galaxy Note 10 went on sale today, actually both versions, the Note 10 and the Note 10 plus. So let's do a quick review roundup, but we're going to do the Note 10 plus specifically because they're generally the same phone, really, and honestly, if you're interested in going down the note road, you're likely interested in going bigger going home, right? In Gizmodo, Sam Rutherford says that the Galaxy Note 10 plus is in his words, damn near perfect. Quote, in the end, while no phone is utterly impeccable, the Note 10 plus comes incredibly close. It's got big power, big specs, and the biggest, most glorious display

Starting point is 00:07:50 you can get right now. Sure, the lack of a 90-hertz screen. and a headphone jack might make this phone non-starter for some. The S-Pens Air Actions are a solution in search of a problem, and Samsung's low-light mode isn't quite as good as Google's night site. But those quibbles are just tiny knocks against what is otherwise the most flexible and well-equipped phone on the market. Between its built-in stylus and productivity potential, the No-10 Plus doesn't really have a competitor that delivers anywhere near the same experience, end quote.

Starting point is 00:08:25 In Wired, Lauren Good is a bit more measured, calling the Note 10 Plus overkill, but beautiful overkill. Her wired versus tired rundown goes like this. Wired. More phone and more power in a phone than you might ever need. It's actually a challenge to drain the battery. S-Pen is still a convenient and fun alternative form of input. Reflective ARA glow finish is smudgy, but cool. Tired. too darn big. Dex, Samsung's solution for running a mobile OS on your laptop, is finicky. For $1,100 you're not getting a whole lot more technology than you get with the $800 Galaxy S10 Plus. She gives the phone 8 out of 10. And an 8.5 from the verge, where Dieter Bone says the screen is beautiful and handwriting recognition with the S-Pen is neat. But overall, Samsung's

Starting point is 00:09:22 software game has backslid a bit into confusion. And yes, he concurs, Dex is a mess. Quote, the specs, massive screen, and design combined to make the Note 10 plus a smartphone that goes to $11,100. And again, there are Android phones and even Samsung phones that cost hundreds of dollars less and get you nearly there. The One Plus 7 Pro is amazing. The Pixel 4 is only a couple of months away. And the Galaxy S10 Plus is not all that different from the note. Every one of those phones is a more sensible purchase than the Note 10 plus, but none of them are anywhere near as nice to hold, look at, or use. I love how luxurious the Note 10 plus's hardware is, but I can't say that's a good reason to buy this phone either.

Starting point is 00:10:12 That means, for most people, it really does come down to the S-pen stylus. It may work like a wand, but it's not so magical that I think non-stylus people will be enchanted enough to spend hundreds of dollars extra to get the Note 10 plus, end quote. Time for the weekly weekend Long Read Suggestions. First up, again, that best tweet from Crypto History from our sponsor BRD, first link in the Long Read suggestions. Next, this is always kind of a highlight of the year for me, and it's in two parts from the verge, a run, down of the 166 startups that showed their wares at Y Combinators demo days one and two earlier this week. It's a fun little parlor game to scroll through the list and imagine what might be coming our way soon. I mean, it's everything from a marketplace to survey participants on

Starting point is 00:11:11 demand, an app to provide reviews of individual dishes, not just restaurants, to augmented reality guided tools for surgical procedures. Always fascinating. stuff. Next, we didn't cover this, but yesterday Patrick Byrne, the founder and CEO of Overstock.com, resigned, quote, saying his involvement as a federal informant in the investigation of infamous Russian spy Maria Butina made performing his duties impossible, end quote. But there is much, much more to the whole Byrne story. Check out the Forbes piece entitled The Exclusive Inside Story of the Fall of Overstock's Mad King, Patrick Byrne, That does exactly what the title implies, giving you the whole long, weird saga.

Starting point is 00:12:00 And you know, I continue to be fascinated with The Athletic, to quote our friend Jay Yarrow. Quote, what I like about the athletic as a business is they're just going for it. They have a point of view, a plan, and it's all about execution. It's either going to work or it won't. Burn money, grow, see if you can find cruising altitude, end quote. quoting from this deep business week profile that I'm directing you to. In August, co-founder Alex Mather says, The Athletic crossed 600,000 subscribers.

Starting point is 00:12:33 We'll end the year somewhere close to a million, he says. The leader in digital journalism, The Times, has almost 3 million online-only subscribers, not including people who just get its crosswords and cooking services. The Wall Street Journal has 1.8 million. The Washington Post has more than 1.5 million as of last year, and the Financial Times, about 750,000. All four were founded in the 19th century and have carried a loyal readership into the Internet age. The Athletic posted its first story three and a half years ago. The question is whether the athletic can make money. It has yet to turn a profit. Venture capital investors have poured more than $90 million into the site to date. In the most recent fundraising round, a $22 million investment, the Founders Fund led in May. The company was valued at about $500 million, says a source familiar with the offering. The athletic declined to comment on its valuation.

Starting point is 00:13:27 The early numbers are impressive, but more than one person interviewed for this story made comparisons to the ill-fated national sports daily. The tabloid started in 1990 and spent $150 million to poach top writers before folding 18 months later, end quote. And I continue to monitor the Chinese-U.S. Tech Cold War and all of its facets, not just the trade war stuff. As this piece in the Washington Post puts it, the quantum computer revolution is coming, and Chinese scientists and researchers are the odds-on favorites right now to get to quantum computing first. Quote, quantum bits or qubits, which are often atoms, electrons, or photons, can exist as zeros and ones at the same time or in any position between,

Starting point is 00:14:14 a flexibility that allows them to process information in new ways. Some physicists compare them to a spinning coin that is simultaneously in a heads and tails state. In a recent talk, Pan Jian Wei, called the father of quantum in China, detailed how China is harnessing cubits to safeguard its communications from hacking, one of the fields in which China appears to have a lead over the West. Pan and his team are aiming to launch a constellation of satellites and a nationwide fiber optic network that use cubits to securely transmit information. And almost third, 1,300-mile fiber link connecting Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities is already up and running. So is a satellite China launched in 2016, which has conducted several prominent experiments,

Starting point is 00:14:59 including facilitating a hacking-resistant video conference between Beijing and Vienna, end quote. So, are you ready to have sex with robots? Wired says, we're kind of already there. Quote, almost nobody buys sex robots. They're expensive. heavy. They don't fit in a bedside drawer. The idea that the future of sex will be slavering over custom-made silicon replicas is as interesting as it is unlikely. Think about it. The people interviewed in sex robot stories are never surprised to find themselves besotted with an inanimate object.

Starting point is 00:15:37 In other words, the people who were going to be interested in having sex with a real doll knew they were interested in that kind of sex before real dolls existed. The real robosexual revolution will be, and already is, more software than hardware. And it's this version of the story fewer people are talking about, end quote. Finally, from Polygon, let me introduce you to YouTube's vaporwave scene. Not vaporware, vapor wave, quote, vaporwave first sprang up in the early 2010s by satirizing pop culture, usually through reimagining nostalgic shows, films, or moments, through glitch art or psychedelic edited animation set to chill music. That's as close to a definite description as possible as vaporwave is also continuously changing.

Starting point is 00:16:26 YouTube's specific vapor wave reemergence isn't reliant on nostalgia, but is defined by its culture of vulnerability and recognizable sadness. Lounge music is replaced with lo-fi chill hop or variations on popular sad rap from artists like Lil Peep, end quote. Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty fans. Heads up, I've got a rabbit hole for you to go down on YouTube this weekend. So I trust you all enjoyed your Taylor Swift present under your Spotify Christmas tree this morning. Do you know that in our dashboard for podcasters on Spotify, they share with us the top five listened to artists by people who listened to your podcast?

Starting point is 00:17:13 you want to know who are the big five that you all are listening to. Taylor Swift is one of them. Also, Ed Sheeran, Drake, Kanye West, and The Chain Smokers. So I guess I know what a lot of you will be doing this weekend. You'll be streaming the album lover. Enjoy. We've got one weekend bonus episode this weekend coming tomorrow. After that, I'll talk to you again on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 08/23 - Are "Partners" Looking To Exit Libra?

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