Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 09/06 - Sonos Goes Portable and Apple Music Goes To The Web

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, September 6th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple may just have given us the final reason to delete iTunes. Sonos has its first portable speaker. The attorneys general are targeting Facebook as well. It's duplicating Google services all the way down and, of course, the weekend long read suggestions. Here's which you miss today in the world of tech. Apple has launched a public beta of Apple Music on the web, which is already available to all subscribers, World

Starting point is 00:01:09 Worldwide, quoting TechCrunch. This is the first time that Apple Music has been officially offered on the web, though an unofficial app over the past few months has gained attention after attracting hundreds of thousands of users. Clearly, there was some pent-up demand for a web version of the service. To use the new Apple Music web version, subscribers can visit the link beta.com and sign in with their Apple ID. At launch, the service includes many core features like searching and playing songs from the Apple Music Catalog, searching and playing songs from your library, if sync library is enabled, accessing your playlist, and more, end quote. As many people asked on Twitter, does this finally mean we can at long last, uninstall iTunes and be done with it once and for all? Also on the music tip, Sonos has announced its first portable speaker, the $399 Sonos move with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and support for basically everything you'd want, Google Assistant, Alexa, AirPlay 2, and Spotify Connect.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Yes, you can now take your Sonos setup on the go. It's got an internal battery, which can get you 10 hours of performance on a charge, as well as a charging base that it lives on when it's back at home. It's already available for pre-order and will be available at retail on September 24th. Quoting the verge, at almost 10 inches tall and weighing over 6.5 pounds, the move is considerably larger than the Sonos one, making it a bit more to carry around than the typical U.E. Boom Bluetooth speaker. So Sonos designed a handle directly into the move's molded plastic shell to make it easy to pick up and move from room to room or take out of the house. The charging base, which has two pogo pins that line up with the contacts on the back of the move,

Starting point is 00:03:02 give the speaker a home when it's not in use, ensuring that it's charged and ready to go when you need it. If you're on the go and need to top up the battery, there's also a USBC port on. on the back. The move's larger footprint provides it with more volume and power than the Sonos 1. It's equipped with two Class D amplifiers, which push a single tweeter and a mid-Wilfer driver. Sonos says the move is powerful enough to overcome the rapid falloff and volume that happens when you play music outdoors. The move also has an IP56 water and dust resistance rating, and the company claims it's strong enough to withstand accidental falls, rain and moisture, sand and dust, and other elements that might be encountered when a speaker is taken outside of the house, end

Starting point is 00:03:45 quote. Well, since we're here, also on the music tip, official word that streaming now accounts for fully 80% of the music industry's revenue, quoting the verge. Revenue made from streaming services in the United States grew by 26% in the first six months of the year, according to Trade Group Recording Industry Association of America, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. That makes for revenue of $4.3 billion, according to research conducted by the group, which represents approximately 80% of the music industry's overall revenue. It's not just streaming. That's helped the industry see a boost, though. Physical media sales also jumped. Both vinyl and CDs saw increases in sales, growing 5 and 13 percent, respectively.

Starting point is 00:04:32 CD sales made up roughly $485 million of the industry's revenue over the first six months of the year, and vinyl sales brought in an additional $224 million, end quote. Well, it seems like it's coming from all angles now. CNBC is reporting that the New York Attorney General is leading a multi-state investigation into Facebook for possible antitrust violations. Attorneys General from Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and the district of Columbia seemed to be down with participating in the probe as well. Facebook had telegraphed that this might be coming in its last quarterly earning statement, and apparently the probe will, quote, focus on Facebook's dominance in the industry and the potential anti-competitive

Starting point is 00:05:24 conduct stemming from that dominance, according to a press release. Quote, even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers. New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement, I am proud to be leading a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in investigating whether Facebook has stifled competition and put users at risk. We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook's actions may have endangered consumer data, reduce the quality of consumers' choices, or increase the price of advertising, end quote. Google has unveiled Assistant Ambient mode, which turns docked Android phones and tablets

Starting point is 00:06:06 into smart displays with calendar info, weather, smart home controls, and more. Quote, on a few upcoming Android phones and tablets, this new mode will turn those devices into something like a Google Nest Hub, nay, Google Home Hub, display when docked. It will show calendar info, weather, notifications, reminders, music controls, and smart home controls. Also, like the Nest Hub smart display, it will automatically show a slideshow from your Google Photos account. It's not a new idea. Alexa has been turning tablets into little Echo shows for a year or so. Google's version will work on a couple of Lenovo tablets and also, perhaps a little surprisingly, on two upcoming Nokia phones.

Starting point is 00:06:50 You'll get many of the benefits of a Nest Hub, but in a device that you can pick up and take with you because it's also an Android tablet or phone. It's potentially really useful as a home remote, too, if you know how to set up your Android device to do that along with Assistant, end quote. So yeah, super useful, but Dieter Bone and the Verge wonders why this is not the Nest Hub software that's being used. It seems that this is a complete duplication of some of the functionality of the Nest Hub software, but not all of the functionality. Dieter speculates that the cause of this is maybe that the Nest Hub software just doesn't work well on a full Android device, or maybe this is actually a sign that assistant will be moving in to take. on more of the features other Google software used to handle. Or, quote, maybe somebody just missed a meeting,

Starting point is 00:07:41 and nobody realized that there were two distinct projects entirely until it was too late to stop them, end quote. Or maybe all of the above. Dieter says his money is on all of the above. But hey, Google has to keep up its reputation for a confusing array of often duplicating services, right? All the better to eventually sunset, whichever one you ended up adopting and came to rely on, right?

Starting point is 00:08:09 Time for the weekend long read suggestions, obviously recorded earlier in the week back in my studio. So I don't know if you've heard, but Mike Isaac's book on Uber is out. It's called Super Pumped, the Battle for Uber. I've got it in my Kindle, so hopefully by the time you've heard this, I'll have been able to dive into it. So with the caveat that I've not read it yet, I do recommend buying it as the whole behind the scenes of the Kalanick affair is something we've been waiting for for a long time. But in the meantime, there have been reviewed. of the book and interviews with Mike. And I just want to suggest this assessment of the book by Noah Colwin in The Baffler, because it makes an interesting point vis-a-vis Calanick and Uber

Starting point is 00:08:50 and Anthony Lewandowski and what constitutes things you can get away with these days and things you can't. This from the end of the piece kind of sums up the thinking, quote, the justice being served to Levendosky, who may yet wriggle out of a complicated prosecution with a high-priced defense attorney is an unfair kind of justice. Much like Elizabeth Holmes and Martin Shikrelli, who were indicted for defrauding investors rather than administering fake blood tests or jacking up the price of an essential medicine, Levindoski is being prosecuted for having done something bad to a corporate entity. After reading super pumped, which details all the awful things that Kalanick and his cronies have done to flesh and blood humans, it's hard to feel anything

Starting point is 00:09:32 other than wistful for a world in which individuals are punished for doing wrong by the workers and customers their business ostensibly serves. In the case of Uber, justice, whether it's served warm or cold or at all, will have ended up at the wrong table, end quote. Next, it sounds like a cliche, but the Atlantic takes a look at how soon and to what degree actual killer robots will be coming to the battlefields of the future. Quote, the Navy is experimenting with a 135-ton ship named the sea hunter that could patrol the oceans without a crew looking for submarines it could one day attack directly. In a test, the ship has already sailed the 2,500 miles from Hawaii to California on its own, although without any weapons. Meanwhile, the army is developing a new system for its tanks

Starting point is 00:10:17 that can smartly pick targets and point a gun at them. It is also developing a missile system called the Joint Air to Ground missile that has the ability to pick out vehicles to attack without humans say so. In March, the Pentagon asked Congress for money to buy 1,000, 51 jaggams at a cost of $367.3 million. And the Air Force is working on a pilotless version of its storied F-16 fighter jet as a part of its provocatively named Skyborg program, which could one day carry substantial armaments into a computer-managed battle, end quote. And BuzzFeed has a deep investigative report about how Amazon is actually building out its delivery system, that system which is increasingly leaving behind the likes. of UPS and FedEx and the good old postal service. I don't know if you were aware of this,

Starting point is 00:11:07 but Amazon is basically creating its delivery program using hundreds of third-party delivery companies to get those packages to your door. And according to BuzzFeed, it ain't pretty. There's been a rash of road accidents as the drivers are under immense time pressure for low pay. There have been break-ins to people's homes, as of course Amazon has no idea

Starting point is 00:11:29 who it is sending to your door. And as always, that's the point. By subcontracting, Amazon can avoid labor costs as well as liability costs. It's grisly reading this piece, but it's worth reading to understand what's going on here. And not that you need it, but here's some free advice, Jeff Bezos. There would actually be tremendous brand value to having Amazon do this itself and not subcontracted out. Offices and households get to know their FedEx guy or UPS gal by name. Having a trusted smiley-face Amazon van making the usual rounds in a neighborhood would be like a glorified Amazon brand ambassador. And also, hey, it would be the right thing to do.

Starting point is 00:12:13 So there's that. We've discussed Quibi, right, the startup of Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg, that is hoping to launch a whole slate of small, snackable 15 to 20-minute videos. It's a mantra that I've heard for decades. We need to create webisodes for the internet era's short attention spans. Well, color me, super skeptical that anyone actually wants this. And again, people have been saying we want this for 25 years now. But the Wall Street Journal is looking into this webisode trend once again, and it's not just Quibi. Snapchat, of course, has been investing in short form video for a while now to some success. And Netflix has recently been experimenting with 15-minute episodes as well. But I can't help but pointing this out as a little bit of Internet history, quote, long before Quibi. And during his 22-year tenure with DreamWorks Studios, Mr. Katzenberg was preaching the value of snackable video stories. Just as the dot-com bubble was bursting, he created a company for short films, animations, and other video pops on the web. Partners included his DreamWorks SKG co-founders, Mr. Spielberg and David Geffen, and Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.

Starting point is 00:13:23 But their pop.com folded before the site even launched, end quote. So it's just an idea that apparently Katzenberg can't give up on. And this is insane. What if someday you could say, hey, whomever, let me talk to my dad. And an AI version of your dad popped up and started talking to you, even though your dad has been dead for a decade now. Yes, imagine if we could have Obi-1 Kenobi-style avatars of our departed loved ones that we could interact with, even after they're long departed. quote, someday Andrew Kaplan, who playfully refers to himself as a guinea pig, may be remembered as one of the world's first digital humans. If all goes according to plan, future generations will be able to interact with him using mobile devices or voice computing platforms such as Amazon's Alexa,

Starting point is 00:14:13 asking him questions, eliciting stories, and drawing upon a lifetime's worth of advice long after his physical body is gone, end quote. The technology for this is already here today, people. And finally, in 2014, Electronic Arts stopped publishing the video game NCAA football. After an antitrust lawsuit on behalf of college football players who had not been compensated for the use of their names and likenesses, necessitated the game's cancellation. Well, the ringer takes a look at the community of fans of the game who have kept it alive every football season by updating the stats to use in-game with contemporary players and numbers. Quote, there are others doing this, but not nearly as well as Burrins and his partners.

Starting point is 00:14:57 They now serve as NCAA football's de facto creative team, even if they aren't sure how many people at EA sports know or care about what they're doing. And while the why of this, staying up into the wee hours of the night, Googling the speed of a third string wide receiver so that he can program it into a defunct product, is difficult to pinpoint. Burrins admits he'd feel lost if the game just drifted into a quiet purgatory, end quote. So if you are indeed hearing this, then I was able to get a show out. Yes, I'm recording this outside in the middle of the woods above a lake, way up in Ontario, with not a single bar of cellular service on my phone. The fireside conference is indeed wild and fun and great. There were huge bonfires last night and everyone is up

Starting point is 00:15:47 until 4 a.m. having a blast. As soon as I get this out, I'm going to attend my first sessions, some pitch advice sessions, some mental health and startup sessions. But also, I think I'm going to hit up the lock picking sessions. Yes, actual lock picking. The dude even apparently has brought some safes to teach us how to break into safes, I guess. Anyway, no weekend bonus episodes this weekend, though we will have two next weekend. Talk to y'all on Monday if I indeed decide to come back.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 09/06 - Sonos Goes Portable and Apple Music Goes To The Web

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