Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 09/06 – Telegram Blinks.

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Pavel Durov speaks, and Telegram blinks, both for the first time since the French arrest. Are XR glasses tethered to smartphones the next big product category? What if your smartphone could cure your vision problems? And in the longreads, if Waymo is about to scale, what, exactly, is the business model, long-term? Links: Pavel Durov: Telegram founder says France arrest is ‘misguided’ (The Guardian) Exclusive: Qualcomm explores acquiring pieces of Intel chip-design business (Reuters) Qualcomm says it’s working on mixed reality smart glasses with Samsung and Google (CNBC) Review: Honor Magic V3 (Wired) Exclusive: Honor's latest devices use AI to try to reverse nearsightedness (Android Central) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Waymo’s Robot Taxis Are Almost Mainstream. Can They Now Turn a Profit? (NYTimes) When the Bitcoin Scammers Came for Me (The Atlantic) Among the Idlers (Curbed) 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, September 6, 2024. I'm Brian McCullough today. Pavel Durov speaks and telegram blinks, both for the first time since the French arrest. Are XR glasses tethered to smartphones the next big product category?

What if your smartphone could cure your vision problems? And in the long reads, if Waymo is about to scale, what exactly is the business model long term? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Pavel Durov has spoken, calling his arrest by French authorities misguided. and denying Telegram is in, quote, anarchic paradise in his first public comment since his detention, quoting the Guardian. The Russian-born multi-billionaire said the investigation into the app was surprising in that French authorities had access to a hotline he had helped set up, and they could have contacted telegram's EU representative at any time. If a country is unhappy with an internet service,

the established practice is to start a legal action against the service itself, he wrote. Using laws from the pre-smartime era to charge a CEO with crimes, committed by third parties on the platform he manages is a misguided approach, end quote. Telegram, he said, was not perfect, but he denied any abuse associated with the app. But the claims in some media that Telegram is some sort of anarchic paradise are absolutely untrue, he wrote. We take down millions of harmful posts and channels every day, end quote. Well, interestingly, without much fanfare, Telegram seems to have radically altered its stance

on illegal use of its platform by letting users in private chats now flag illegal content for review by moderators, quoting Coin Desk. On Thursday night, the formerly freewheeling texting app extended its moderator's reach to include private chats. For the first time, users in private chats can, quote, flag illegal content for review, Telegram wrote in a change on its FAQ page. An older version of the same page said Telegram treated private groups as off-limits. Earlier Thursday, Duraov acknowledged in a telegram post that the app's rapid growth, quote, made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform and promised changes, end quote.

From the struggling Intel file, sources are telling Reuters that Qualcomm has explored acquiring portions of Intel's design business, including Intel's client PC design business, so more signs that Intel is looking to burn anything that is flammable just to generate some cash quick. Quote, Intel's client PC design business is of significant interest to Qualcomm executives, one of the sources said, but they are looking at. looking at all of the company's design units. Other pieces of Intel, such as the server segment, would make less sense for Qualcomm to acquire, another source with knowledge of Qualcomm's operations said.

Qualcomm has not approached Intel about a potential acquisition, an Intel spokesperson said. Intel is, quote, deeply committed to our PC business, the spokesperson said. The $184 billion Qualcomm, which is known for chips found in smartphones and counts Apple, as a customer has been working on plans to buy pieces of Intel for months. Qualcomm's interest and plans have not been finalized and could change according to the sources. Qualcomm generated $35.82 billion in overall revenue in its last fiscal year. Intel's board is set to meet next week to weigh a proposal from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and other executives on how to trim its operations in an attempt to save cash.

Potential options include a sale of its programmable chip unit, Alter, Reuters, has reported, end quote. More Qualcomm news, CEO Cristiano Amman, says, the company is working with Samsung and Google on a mixed reality set of smart glasses linked to a smartphone. So it looks like those X-Real, nay, and real glasses have proven a new product segment, possibly. Quoting CNBC, last year, Google, Samsung, and Qualcomm struck a partnership to develop mixed reality technology that refers to the combination of augmented and virtual reality, often involving digital images that are imposed over the real world in front of you. Amon's comments are among the first to shed light on the project. It's going to be a new product. It's going to be new experiences, Amman said, discussing what will come out of the mixed reality partnership.

But what I really expect to come out of this partnership, I want everyone that has a phone to go buy companion glasses to go along with it, Amon said. The CEO referenced Facebook parent meta's Rayban smart glasses, which look like regular shades but are wirelessly linked to a smartphone and have a built-in camera. On top of that, they have a voice assistant powered by Meta's Lama Artificial Intelligence Model. Qualcomm has also made mixed reality a key target area as it diversifies its business beyond smartphones. The company has a chip called the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, design for smart glasses. Qualcomm has been touting the fact that its various chips across smartphones and PCs allow AI applications to run on the device rather than being processed in the cloud via the internet. AI is going to run on the device.

It's going to run on the cloud. It's going to run some in the glass and some in the phone. but at the end of the day, there's going to be whole new experiences, Amon said. Virtual and augmented reality headsets are still a smaller market than smartphones. The International Data Corporation expects 9.7 million VR and AR headsets to be shipped this year, sharply lower than the forecast of 1.23 billion smartphones. Common complaints with AR and VR devices, which have so far typically been large headsets, are that they are not convenient and are also at times uncomfortable to wear.

A set of smart glasses could solve this, bringing a stylish device to the mixed reality market. I think we need to get to the point that the glasses are going to be no different than wearing a regular glass or sunglasses. And then with that, we can get scale, Amon said. Details about the project involving the three players are still sparse. In an interview with SanBC this year, T.M. Rowe, the head of Samsung's mobile division, said that the company would announce a new mixed reality platform within the year. This is likely to be a software product, according to Roe, though he declined to elaborate at the time, end quote. Smartphone Maker Honor recently released the Magic V3, a foldable phone that is thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and also thinner than an iPhone when it's unfolded flat. This is launching for

1,199 pounds in the UK and 1,99 euro in the EU. Wired is actually giving it an 8 out of 10 in their review, quote, The Honor Magic V3 is the best book-style folding phone I have used. The daring design is impossibly slim and light. There are some interesting AI features, and it ticks all the traditional flagship boxes with a versatile camera, long battery life, and fast charging. Honor software has dragged its devices down in the past, but a few minor issues aside, I had a better time with the Magic V3 than with the Magic 6 Pro. You won't find a slimmer folding phone than the Honor Magic V3. It is 9.2 millimeters thick when folded and 4.4 millimeters when open.

To put that into context, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1 millimeters folded and 5.6 millimeters open. The Pixel 9 Pro fold is 10.5 millimeters and 5.1 millimeters. Only the Jaume Mix Fold 4 gets close at 9.5 millimeters folded and 4.6 millimeters open. These sound like tiny differences, but we hold our phones so often that even shaving a millimeter or two helps the Magic V3 feel like a regular phone when folded. I do need to point out that no one includes enormous camera bumps in these measurements. The Honor Magic V3 is also relatively light at 226 grams compared to the 239 grams for the Z-Fold 6 and 257 grams for the Pixel 9 Pro fold. Hell, the iPhone 15 Pro Max weighs 221 grams.

You may assume that such a thin device would be fragile, but Honor was at pains to point out its durability. Claiming its impact resistance is 40 times better than the Samsung Galaxy S-24 Alt. and that the hinge is good for at least 500,000 folds. I can't speak to the accuracy of those claims yet. The Magic V3 also scores an IPX8 rating, meaning it can be submerged, but has no dust protection, like most folding phones. The whole phone feels solid enough if I had to find fault. I'd say the plastic bezel around the inner screen gathers dirt and dust easily, end quote. Cool, but what's also interesting is this. Honor is also rolling out something called defocus tech on the Magic V3 and their Magic Pad 2 tablet. What does this do? Well, it helps you

see better. Quoting Android Central to explain, myopia or near-sightedness is a problem created when eyes grow longer in order to better focus on objects that are arm's length or closer to them. In a world where we're constantly looking at monitors or smartphones for long periods of time throughout the day, it's not hard to understand why this is a literal growing problem. But smartphone or monitor usage isn't going away in the modern age. instead of just relying on glasses usage to fix the problem, Honor is taking a two-pronged approach. The company just introduced the first near-work-induced transient myopia-reducing display

on both the Honor Magic V-3 folding phone and the Honor Magic 2 tablet. These special displays use a combination of advanced OLED technology and AI-seen understanding to recreate the effects of defocus incorporated multiple segments, DIMS or DIMS lenses, which have scientifically proven to slow down the elongation of the eye. The technology works by separating colors and keeping some in focus while defocusing others. There are also times when colors are changed or objects receive faint outlines that place them more or less in focus depending on the color used. It's similar to chromatic aberration, a lens effect that separates colors via a prism,

which can also be seen in 3D movies that provide artificial depth. In essence, it simulates the act of looking away from your device at a distant object, helping to automate a process that most of us forget to do. It's difficult to describe and even more difficult to understand unless you see it in action. And not everyone is convinced that this could be a one-stop shop solution. According to Bavin Shah, behavioral optometrist at Central Vision Opticians, DIMS therapy, remember those are the physical defocused lenses that people can wear, is generally only used in people up to age 21 and sees only a 1% success rate beyond that age, end quote.

Time for the weekend long read suggestions. First up, as I've been saying, Waymo seems to be reaching a tipping point in terms of scaling its self-driving operations. So that leads one to wonder, what are the unit economics here? Is there a good business here? Maybe even a great one. Quoting the New York Times. At this point, the fully autonomous driving industry is really just an industry of one. Waymo, said John Crack, a former chief executive officer of Waymo and a member of the electric vehicle company Rivians board. Waymo is charging prices similar to Ubers and lifts, but unlike those companies whose profit margins are sliths,

at best, Waymo has to pay for its fleet along with real estate for storage and recharging. The equipment on Waymo's fifth-generation robot taxis, electric jaguar eye-pace vehicles, costs as much as $100,000, Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo's co-chief executive said on a podcast in February. And while Waymo doesn't have to pay for drivers, it employs technicians behind the scenes to monitor rides. Saswat Panagrahi, Waymo's chief product officer, said in an interview that the company was betting that its fixed costs, like the expense of LiDAR sensors and the number of human monitors it needs, will decrease over time. Autonomous vehicle experts see a few different market fits for robot taxis, a handful of major cities like New York and Chicago, where the

demand for ridership is the most concentrated could mimic Waymo's rollout in San Francisco. This would most likely include operating at major airports, which have long been cash cows for Uber and Lyft. Waymo currently stewards passengers to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport and is in talks to expand into San Francisco International Airport, according to emails viewed by the New York Times. If we were to look at the greater New York area, you may not see service in Manhattan, said William Riggs, a professor at the University of San Francisco who studies autonomous vehicles.

You may see a large propensity for profit in Hoboken, or in Westchester County, or even Long Island, end quote. There is also the long-term possibility that companies like Waymo ditch or outsource their fleets to focus on selling software and operating systems to companies like Uber, end quote. Then over at the Atlantic, Annie Lowry, let herself be scammed, pig-butchered, to use the specific term, but she outlined how it worked in great detail so that you can understand the subtle differences between the sophisticated pig-butchering process and the run-of-the-mill misspelled email scams of your. Quote, I was enmeshed in a textbook pig-butchering scam, the hallmark of which,

its horrifying name aside, is a certain relaxed charm, no rush, no blunt ask for cash, just a lot of engaging and unthreatening messages leading inexorably to an attempt to get me to start trading Bitcoin on a dedicated platform or to send it to an anonymous address. The scam had some plausibility to it. Mike Wilson really is an investor, a famous investor. He's the chief investment officer of Morgan Stanley. His assistant's name, in the group chat is the name of a real Morgan Stanley employee easily found on LinkedIn, though the person's actual job is in internal operations. A Morgan Stanley spokesperson confirmed that neither was texting me. Morgan Stanley does not offer direct Bitcoin trading and does not

advise clients via WhatsApp. In addition to the real and realish people who seem to be participating in the chats, the Bitcoin prices posted in the group chat were up to date, and the order forms looked convincingly professional. For weeks, nobody asked me anything. It was difficult at times to tell what anyone wanted, let alone how they were going to get it, end quote. And then finally today, this is not tech, but this is one of the best New York stories in a while in terms of capturing the spirit of New Yorkers and the city. New York City has a law that allows everyday citizens to report when trucks are idling their engines for long periods of time. The idea being trucks idling their engines all day causes pretty bad localizing

air pollution. So a whole subset of New Yorkers have made a habit and even a living going around the city reporting on idling trucks. Some make six figures a year collecting the fines and bounties for doing it. Who would be the type of person who would do this? Well, if you've ever lived here, you kind of know the type. The urban busybody. Dear listener, don't think I haven't considered doing this myself now and again over the years. But read the piece. It's just beautifully written in a sort of anthropological way, capturing people in the city, the spirit of the people, dealing with the wilds of the city and the bureaucracy and their fellow citizens themselves. Quote, when at a party I mentioned the idling program, and my interlocutor turns out to be

thoroughly acquainted with it, yet not a participant yet, I discover he is the eponymous creator of the HBO show How To with John Wilson, whose eccentric charm is grounded in exacting, observed, pathologically catalogued videos of New York City's streets. If you are trying to picture the modal male idling reporter and you are familiar with John Wilson, you can stop trying to picture them. Although the CACP seems like a deceptively straightforward proposition, record a video, submit the video, wait for the DEP to issue a summons, wait to see if the fine gets paid, collect your reward. It is not. Once you have overcome the barriers that shield the program from the outside world, you discover fresh opacity with barriers within.

the constantly changing rules and legal precedents, the variegated forms of city agency myths, mal, and non-feasance, the clunkiness and creakiness of the DEP's complaint submission system, casual and frequent dabbling in the program isn't really an option. To use the system, you must master the system. And if you are a master of the system, the only way to go is big time. Outside the Trader Joe's at City Point Mall, we ride off in defeat to the taunts of a moving crew. Don't y'all want no more pictures, they croon? You are not on the phone, bro. A con-ed worker shouts at Patrick, I'm leaving, brother, I'm leaving right now. Come on, you got me already on Montague Street so many times. Pleads a plumber. Suck my two, says Amazon ambiguously, but being a celebrity sometimes invites a friendlier response.

Pay me $10 and I'll turn it back on, teases a driver he's never met before. What's up, Doc? Salutes another. Well, salutes with, you know, Vehicle operators are growing more alert by the day. In our first hour out, a school bus driver shuts off after maybe spotting Patrick, who then purchased his phone insanely atop the back wheel of a whisper-quiet, double-parked elevator repair van whose driver then pockets the phone. But when asked nicely gives it back with an innocent grin saying, I thought it was mine. Patrick's phone has wound up in the trash next to Barclays Center and seized by Amazon workers, sometimes along with his bike. They eventually made their peace with Patrick or male Karen, as they call him,

and had him guest star in a TikTok video. He cheerfully shares the resulting videos with the group with explanatory glosses such as, I'm an idiot, or everything seemed quiet and peaceful, and then suddenly I was surrounded by eight people. It astonishes me that after two years of this, he still has his original iPhone and his original teeth, end quote. No weekend bonus episode this week, and note that Monday's show will be a bit late, because iPhone event, of course. Talk to you on Monday probably about three or so hours later than I usually do.