Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 11/22 - CYBERTRUCK!

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, November 22nd, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. We got to talk about cyber truck. Twitter continues, it's shipping products hot streak. AirPods are hotter than even Apple anticipated, some trouble in Russia for gadget makers, and of course, the weekend long read suggestions.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. All right. So you might have heard that Elon Musk and Tesla unveiled the cyber truck last night. And yes, there is a ton to talk about. But before we get into the fun stuff, let's get to the salient details, quoting TechCrunch. Tesla will offer three variants of the cyber truck. The cheapest version, a single motor and rear wheel drive model will cost $39,900, have a towing capacity of 7,500 pounds, and more than 250 miles of range. The middle version will be a dual motor, all-wheel drive, have a towing capacity of more than 10,000 pounds, and more than 250,000 pounds, and more than 250, and more than 250 miles, and more than 20,000. and be able to travel more than 300 miles on a single charge. The dual motor all-wheel drive model is priced at $49,900. The third version will have three electric motors and all-wheel drive, a towing capacity of 14,000 pounds, and battery range of more than 500 miles.

Starting point is 00:01:59 This version, known as Tri-Motor, is priced at $69,900. Musk touted the acceleration of the cyber truck as well, showing a video at one point of the truck beating a portion, 9-11 off the line. Musk said the trimotor version can travel from zero to 60 miles per hour in under 2.9 seconds. The single motor rear wheel drive is the slowest off the line with a 0 to 60 acceleration of less than 6.5 seconds. Tesla said customers can put down a $100 deposit. They'll be able to complete their configuration as production nears in late 2021. Tri-motor and all-wheel drive production is expected to begin in late 2022, end quote.

Starting point is 00:02:41 Now for the fun stuff, trust me, you're going to want to seek out the video on this if you haven't already done so to show off the cold rolled stainless steel body, or exoskeleton, as Musk called it. On stage, the truck door was hit with a sledgehammer, and it held up. Then to show off the so-called armor glass, Tesla's lead designer Franz von Holzenhausen through a solid metal ball at the drive-side window. Quoting TechCrunch again, while the glass didn't completely shatter, it did appear to crack from edge to edge. Oh my bleeping God, Musk laughs.

Starting point is 00:03:24 Well, maybe that was a little too hard, end quote. So they tried it again on the rear passenger window and it cracked too. quote, room for improvement, Musk says with a shrug. Was this a gag? A ha ha, just kidding. Here's a test of the real glass sort of thing. No. Elon stood in front of the truck, two broken windows and all, and completed the presentation.

Starting point is 00:03:48 While no one would expect most standard windows to stand up to a test like this, even Elon seemed surprised by the results. We threw wrenches, we threw everything, he said on stage. We even literally threw a kitchen sink at the glass and it didn't break. For a little weird reason, it broke now. I don't know why, end quote. We'll fix it in post. He followed up with a laugh and then moved on to talking about the car's suspension, end quote. Again, Elon finished the presentation with the truck on stage behind him with two prominently shattered windows.

Starting point is 00:04:22 And we haven't even gotten to the look of the truck yet. Again, seek out pictures. People were falling all over themselves to come up with a sci-fi announcement. to describe the design. I would personally go with a Paul Verhoeven vibe, something from Robocop or Total Recall. And people went wild with the jokes. Here's Jason Shawcross. Can't wait to see what it looks like when they port it from GTA San Andreas to GTA5 and the rest of the pixels load.

Starting point is 00:04:51 Here's Tom Giles. Seriously, it's like a Delorean mated with a Pontiac Aztec. At argument winner, quote, If I see a Tesla truck in the wild, I'm going to do skateboard tricks on it. And here's John Patrick Pullen. Finally, a truck for dudes who wear Oakley's. I was worried they'd never get one. And finally, David Roth, quote,

Starting point is 00:05:16 The thing that I'll say in defense of the bad Elon Musk cyber truck is that it absolutely looks like it belongs in a 1989 movie called Cyber Truck. Like it should be seen driving down a dusty road and a suicide door. should open and Jeff Fahey should lean out and say, get in, end quote. Look, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I actually like the design. Do not at me, car folk. I know I have no aesthetic sense when it comes to cars. But I think one thing is for sure. This will be the instant status symbol in Silicon Valley when they start rolling off the production line. If you are the sort of person who wants to be noticed, this is the vehicle for you. But people really seem to be turned,

Starting point is 00:06:00 off, or at least a certain segment. A Credit Suisse analyst said Ford and General Motors can breathe a sigh of relief. And here's one more quote from CNBC. Tesla's cybertruck looks weird, like really weird. Musk had warned investors that Tesla's pickup would be really futuristic like cyberpunk blade runner, and he wasn't kidding. Bernstein analyst Tony Sakanagi wrote in a note to investors titled Mad Musk Fury Road. Tesla shares fell 6.2% in Friday trading from its previous close of $354.83, end quote. By the way, we're still not done with this segment. Musk also did a literal one more thing and unveiled an all-electric, all-terrain vehicle.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Quoting TechCrunch one more time, the Tesla electric ATV didn't get a lot of time to shine on its own, and instead was used primarily to demonstrate how the Tesla cyber truck bed and active suspension works for loading up cargo. But it's a real enough thing that Tesla made sure to point out that you can charge the electric four-wheeler right from the cyber truck while the ATV is loaded in the bed. Musk didn't reveal anything about pricing or availability regarding the ATV, but a demo drive did actually drive it up on stage and load it into the bed. So it's real enough to be functional. Like the cyber truck itself, it also featured a body design with a lot of interesting flat planes and angles, and it was done up in Matt Black, which makes it look like the ATV version of a

Starting point is 00:07:32 stealth bomber, end quote. Never change, Elon, never, never change. Russia has banned the sale of gadgetry, including smartphones, computers, and smart TVs that are not pre-installed with alternative Russian software. The ban is slated to go into effect July 2020, quote, proponents of the legislation say that it is aimed at promoting Russian technology, and making it easier for people in the country to use the gadgets they buy. But there are concerns about surveillance and fears that firms could pull out of the Russian market.

Starting point is 00:08:07 The law will not mean devices from other countries cannot be sold with their normal software, but Russian alternatives will also have to be installed. The legislation was passed by Russia's lower house of parliament on Thursday. A complete list of the gadgets affected and the Russian-made software that needs to be pre-installed will be determined by the government. The Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Electronic Household and Computer Equipment, Ratech, has said it will not be possible to install Russian-made software on some devices and that the international companies behind the gadgets may leave the Russian market as a result of the law.

Starting point is 00:08:43 Others have raised concerns that the Russian-made software could be used to spy on users, end quote. Twitter says that users can now enroll in two-factor authentication without a phone number. number and disable SMS-based two-factor authentication as a default. You can now use those less hackable mobile authenticator apps instead. This is something that people have been asking for for a while now. What changed? Maybe it was because a couple of months ago, hackers used a sim swap attack to gain access to Jack Dorsey's personal Twitter account. Quote, this also means that Twitter users can now delete the phone number associated with their account and still be able to use two-factor authentication, something that was not possible before.

Starting point is 00:09:32 This also inherently eliminates scenarios where sim swappers who don't know a user's password can use the SMS-based password recovery feature to hijack accounts, effectively plugging the sim swapping attack vector for an account. Twitter announced the feature today, but it has been under testing for more than a week as spotted by a user over the weekend, end quote. And Twitter continues to be on a role in terms of actually shipping things, as yesterday they rolled out the hide replies feature to all users globally. Quote, designed to balance the conversation on Twitter by putting the original poster back in control of which replies to their tweets remain visible. Hide replies has been one of Twitter's more controversial features to date. While no replies are actually deleted from Twitter when a user chooses to hide them, they are placed behind an extra

Starting point is 00:10:18 click. That means the trolling, irrelevant, insulting, or otherwise disagreeable comments don't get to dominate the conversation. Twitter's thinking is that, if people know that hateful remarks and inappropriate behavior could be hidden from view, it will encourage more online civility. However, the flip side is that people could use the hide replies feature to silence their critics or stifle dissent, even when warranted, like someone offering a fact check, for example, end quote. Plus or minus, good or bad, again, I don't really care because I'm just more curious what's gotten into the water at Twitter. I do love to see actual iteration at a company,

Starting point is 00:10:55 especially after so much stagnation. Sources are saying Apple AirPods shipments might actually double to 60 million units in 2019, driven by much higher than expected demand for the AirPods Pro model. Quote, the $249 AirPods Pro, which offer noise cancellation and water resistance, have surpassed expectations and demand for them is pushing Apple's assembly partners against capacity and technical constraints, a person familiar with them. matter said. Multiple suppliers are competing for the business of manufacturing the pro earphones, though some are still building up the technical proficiency. There's currently a wait

Starting point is 00:11:39 time of two to three weeks for the AirPods Pro on Apple's US website, end quote. And in related news, Microsoft has pushed back the release of its surface earbuds to spring of 2020. It was odd at that recent Microsoft hardware event that the earbuds didn't have a shipping date, though Microsoft said it still hoped to have at least the white version of the $250 wireless nubbins available for the holiday season. Microsoft's Penos Penae tweeted, quote, Product making is about the relentless pursuit to get all the details right, which takes time, sometimes more than we planned on. To ensure we deliver the best possible experience for you, our fans and customers,

Starting point is 00:12:20 surface earbuds will now launch worldwide in spring 2020, hashtag surface, end quote. As Windows Central said, quote, If there's any good news about this delay, it's that both the white and gray version should be available at the same time versus a staggered release. Likewise, Microsoft says that because of the delay, surface earbuds can launch simultaneously in more markets than initially planned, end quote. Time for the weekend long reads suggestions. Let's start with the Guardian's deep dive into how our now ubiquitous home delivery habit has reshaped the world.

Starting point is 00:12:58 eventually we will want our deliveries to be so prompt that we will practically be sitting on top of the products we will order. At Chetwood's, the architecture firm, a managing director named Tim Ward told me about Brownfield sites in London that the e-commerce industry can swallow, real estate that has fallen into disuse, and that can be repurposed to hold inventory and sort deliveries, car parks, for instance, that will empty out as people drive less, and which can be converted into fulfillment centers for half-hour delivery. or multi-story towers, each floor connected to the next by a ramp so that vans can drive goods up and down the building, or underground storage caverns, one of which is already being prepared near Heathrow. Other companies had mined the area for minerals, Ward explained. Why fill that void in?

Starting point is 00:13:46 Why not use it for logistics? It makes an ideal use, and then you can put a lovely park across the top of it, end quote. Quanta magazine has a profile of Barbara Lyskoff, who pioneered the modern approach to writing code, the architect of modern algorithms, they call her, quote. When she was still a young professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she led a team that created the first programming language that did not rely on go-to statements. The language, clue, short for cluster, relied on an approach she invented, data abstraction that organized code into modules. Every important programming language used today, including Java, C++, and C is a descendant of Clue, end quote.

Starting point is 00:14:34 The Hollywood Reporter has a look at Spotify's plans to harness podcasting to create the world's number one audio platform. Bloomberg has a look at how and why India's T-Series beat PewDie Pye to become the world's biggest YouTube channel. Now T-Series has to face off with Netflix. Coin Desk makes an interesting point. Protests in Hong Kong, Lebanon, and Iran have all involved internet shutdowns to one degree or another. I did not mention it this week, but Iran has been fully off the grid for several days this week.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Well, protest situations, chaos situations, government shutdown situations. Isn't that a use case that Bitcoin imagined it was built for? And yet, as CoinDesk spoke to Bitcoin savvy protesters in all three places, crypto has emphatically not been a useful tool for the protesters, at least so far. Quote, when global crypto exchanges and service providers ban a population due to sanctions or compliance concerns as they have with Iranians and Lebanese people to some extent, ties to global communities can provide a lifeline. Across the board, sources said, that connectivity and accessibility on the ground were the two fundamental challenges. Money is, after all, primarily a social construct. The dream of a

Starting point is 00:15:55 lone anarchists striking out only works if his goal is to flee, not to stay. Quote, consider two or three people who can communicate with the blockstream satellites. What would be the benefit of using Bitcoin, the Tehran-based Bitcoins said. Not all people are hackers and network experts. When we talk about a payment network, it must have a significant number of members, end quote. And finally today, not tech at all, but if you're a film nerd of a certain age, then GQ's Sit down between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro is just a no-brainer because it's freaking Al Pacino and Robert De Niro chatting with each other. Enjoy. Are we allowed to talk about the Mandalorian yet? I'm caught up to episode three. And at this point,

Starting point is 00:16:45 I honestly think that this is the best Star Wars content in years. But then again, I'm a dude who thinks that Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie behind only the end. Empire Strikes Back. And I'm also a dude who clearly said I kind of dig the cyber truck design. So, you know, maybe you should question my taste in things. By the bye, no weekend bonus episode this weekend, because if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that when holidays approach, trying to book people right before they happen can be down nigh impossible. So, talk to you on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 11/22 - CYBERTRUCK!

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