Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 12/06 - The Future of the iPhone is NO Ports?

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, December 6th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. The Uber Safety Report. More Galaxy S11 rumors. Could Apple be about to kill the charging port on iPhones entirely? And what would that mean? Samsung's new chips to make AR mainstream. And of course, the weekend long read suggestions. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. As it promised to do, Uber has unveiled its first ever safety report. Revealing that over 1.3 billion rides in the U.S. in 2018, there were 3,045 sexual assaults, nine murders, and 58 people killed in crashes. Noting those incidents represent just

Starting point is 00:01:29 0.002% of all rides taken on the Uber platform over that time period. the New York Times. There are few comparable figures to judge Uber's safety record against the New York Police Department, which keeps a register of sex crimes and rapes that occur on transit systems, counted 533 in 2018. But even one of Uber's top executives said the company's findings were difficult to stomach. Quote, the numbers are jarring and hard to digest, Tony West. Uber's chief legal officer said in an interview, what it says is that Uber is a reflection of the society it serves, end quote. Indeed, I'm bringing this up not to harp on Uber, or ride hailing, or gig economy companies in general, or anything, really. Just, I guess,

Starting point is 00:02:22 it's interesting and probably positive to start getting some data and transparency on this sort of thing. As Ian Bogost said on Twitter, quote, it is very hard to find apples to apples comparisons of safety risks in ridechairs versus taxis slash livery, for example, especially across the country. Knowing that Uber had a certain number of reported sexual assault at a certain time may tell us less than it seems. The point isn't to apologize on Uber's or lifts or anyone's behalf, but to note that these services have changed public behavior in a way that is producing different risk and different danger. It's not something that, say, background checks solve a Even if you could compare the data to taxis, what a taxi is in New York City is different than what one is in, say, Akron, end quote.

Starting point is 00:03:18 More leaks surrounding the upcoming galaxy phones. Sources are telling Sohe Kim at Bloomberg that the Galaxy S11 will indeed have a 108 megapixel camera sensor, as well as an ultra-wide angle lens, 5X zoom, and a time-of-flight sensor and depth detection sensor, like on the Note 10 plus. The next Galaxy Fold, meanwhile, will also get that 100.5.5.5.5.2.5.5.5. innate megapixel camera as well and 5X zoom as well. So clearly, Samsung's strategy next year is to go all in on the biggest overhaul of its camera tech to date and really maybe leading the way in terms of making the biggest leap forward in smartphone camera tech yet across the industry. Quote, the deluge on the camera front joins the introduction of foldable devices and fifth generation

Starting point is 00:04:18 wireless connectivity as core pillars of Samsung's hardware strategy. Features Apple won't be able to match until its next iPhone refresh in September. A Samsung Electronics representative declined to comment. Now that closest rival Huawei Technologies is struggling in Europe thanks to U.S. sanctions, Samsung can consolidate its lead by doing what it's always done. Overwhelming consumers with specs, end quote. But don't expect Apple to just stand still, of course, In fact, Minchi Quo thinks Apple will innovate shortly in a way that maybe people won't be so thrilled about.

Starting point is 00:05:02 First of all, might we see an iPhone SE2 plus in 2021 after presumably we get that rumored iPhone SE2 next year? Maybe so, quote, Apple will launch the iPhone SE2 plus in the first half of 2021. We predict that the display size will be 5.5 or 6.1 inch. This model will adopt a full screen design. The notch area will be smaller because of no face ID support. The touch ID will be integrated with the power button which is located on the side, end quote. And then, more startlingly and probably more controversially, also in 2021. Okay, you thought that Apple was being aggressive when it got rid of the headphones,

Starting point is 00:05:50 port, right? But are you ready for a potential reality where there isn't even a charging port on the iPhone? You heard me right. The lightning port, according to this report, is going away, potentially, and not to be replaced with USBC or something like that. No, the future of the iPhone might be no charging ports at all. Quoting again, Apple will create more differentiation between the highest end and high-end models. It will benefit the shipment of the highest end model and iPhone ASP, average selling price. Among new second half of 2021 iPhone models, we expect that the highest end model would cancel the lightning port and provide the completely wireless experience, end quote. Okay. So like you, I can imagine the entire deluge of hot takes coming if this ever comes to pass.

Starting point is 00:06:46 what if I can't find a wireless charging pad, those things better get ubiquitous fast, what about connecting to my car or charging on the airplane, etc., etc. But I actually have one question to ask with the caveat, of course, that I know nothing about nothing. But as someone who has basically moved over to using those Chi wireless chargers in my daily life for my iPhone now almost exclusively, I get that someday maybe. all of our tables and countertops and whatever will be powered. We'll be able to provide wireless charging to any device. I actually look forward to that future. But in the here and now and in the near future, have you ever used a Chi device to charge your phone? They're usually smallish so that you can lean the edges of your phone off the side. Why? Well, those camera bumps. In other words, you can't charge your phone if it's flush, lying flat on a surface, because

Starting point is 00:07:52 the camera protrudes, right? So if we're going bravely into a charging portless future, wouldn't that mean that the camera chassis needs to either get thinner so phones can be flush again or else the phones need to get thicker? Again, I know nothing about anything, so let me know if I'm wrong about this. Also, assuming this wireless charging future does come to pass how soon before we get MacBooks without a charging port. Two more interesting headlines from Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit. First of all, Qualcomm has wanted to make arm-powered Windows laptops a thing for years. And to that end, they have unveiled the Snapdragon 8C with Cryo 490 CPU, Adrino 675 GPU, and an X25 LTE modem.

Starting point is 00:08:50 In addition, there's also a lower end 7C chip, all designed for budget Windows laptops, quoting the verge. Taken together, the new lineup gives Qualcomm a much wider range of arm processor solutions for PC manufacturers at a much wider range of prices and performance levels. But there are some big questions about the announcement that have yet to be answered. Chief among those is the fact that over a year after it announced the 8cx processor, no company has actually shipped a device that's powered by it. The closest we've gotten is the Surface ProX, which has a custom variant of the 8cx, the Microsoft SQ1. There's also the announced, but delayed Galaxy Book S, which was supposed to be out in September but never actually shipped. Samsung has yet to announce a new release date. While we'll likely see more 8cx powered and 8C

Starting point is 00:09:46 and 7C powered laptops out in 2020. The adoption of arm on the PC side of things has been slow, to say the least. It's great that Qualcomm is giving hardware manufacturers more options, but it's still on laptop makers to actually start selling Arm devices, end quote. Also, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon XR2, a 5G compatible chip that is designed to power standalone headsets for the upcoming. anticipated generation of AR smart glasses, but also future VR stuff as well. Remember, one of the big reasons people think 5G could be a revolution is because it could

Starting point is 00:10:29 finally enable things like AR and VR to make sense for mainstream use cases, especially out in the world. I'm quoting CNET. Qualcomm's new XR2 chip sounds powerful. It's a VR-A-R-S specialized variation of the company's newest. Snapdragon 865 chip. Graphics should be twice as good as what's on the current and already excellent Oculus Quest, and much higher display resolution should mean CRISPR visuals.

Starting point is 00:10:57 Don't expect retina-level displays, but 3K resolution per eye, that's 2,880 times 2,880 pixels, at 69 pixels per degree, and at 90 hertz, will be a big leap over current VR technology. Qualcomm says 8K video will put. play on these processors at 60 frames per second or 4K at 120 frames per second. 5G is also possible on VR and AR headsets using this chip, using both sub-6 gigahertz and millimeter wave parts of the spectrum, but it's more of an optional piece than an essential one. Qualcomm's head of XR, Hugo Swart, says that 5G will be used for enterprise-based,

Starting point is 00:11:42 read more expensive, headsets for now, 5G should be a big deal for VR and AR eventually, especially with the promise to remotely render graphics in the cloud and reduce the load on the headset itself, making standalone headsets do more than they currently can. Microsoft has been promising remote rendering with HoloLens too, but it's not been used yet in mainstream devices. There's a strong interest and momentum with carriers to have the 5G version, so we may see an accelerated path there as well, Swart says, end quote. If you've been on the social medias at all this week, no doubt you've seen people posting their Spotify year-in-review lists that Spotify sent to all of us. Well, this segment is not really a story, but it's a tweet storm. And it brings up something interesting about that whole Spotify year-in-review phenomenon and what it might represent for the future of media generally. This is from Thomas Beckdahl.

Starting point is 00:12:42 And I'm going to quote the entire thread. Let me talk about something crazy about Spotify that I think we as publishers should look out for. Spotify is now creating its annual list of songs, and for me, my top songs are these. And here he lists his top songs of the year, continuing the thread. What's crazy about this is that except for the second song, I have no idea who any of these artists are, but Spotify is completely right that I have listened to all of these many times. Think about what that means. It means that I didn't have a relationship with any of these artists.

Starting point is 00:13:18 Instead, they are just completely unknown entities that happen to be picked out by Spotify's algorithm to match my listening preferences. The algorithms now work so well that the artists are irrelevant. This is a massive difference compared to the old world of music. When I was a kid, I would go down to the local music store where I would pick out specific artists that I had heard about and was a fan of. I didn't buy random music. I bought, well, Depeche Mode, NXS, Pet Shop Boys, Madonna, and many other known artists. And I would pick them because I had heard about these specific artists before. But Spotify doesn't work like this. Today, you are probably listening to your Discover Weekly or one of your six other personalized playlists. And that's it. Think about this the next time you hear someone talk about Spotify for news.

Starting point is 00:14:10 the same thing will happen there. Over time, people will turn to their daily news algorithm, which will give you a good selection of stories. But also, in doing so, you will not remember who made it. It will just be this, a bunch of news playlists from sources that you no longer even know about. For instance, in my top songs, I have this one from Jealous. I have never heard that name before. I have no idea who it is, but I've listened to this song many times because it's perfect as a backdrop when I'm writing. This worries me. I don't think news should work like this. By the way, another factor here is that there is a big difference between music and news. Music doesn't have to be fact-checked. There is no true or false, no misinformation.

Starting point is 00:14:56 So Spotify can just focus on giving whatever that sounds nice and matches your personal preferences the most. News, however, cannot be presented like that. You cannot just give people, but sounds nice or what matched people's personal feelings or emotions. If we did that, we would end up with all kinds of problems. In fact, we already see this today, end quote, yes, I kind of think we see that a lot today. And that's kind of the point. Well, after I read you all that, feels like it's time for the weekend long reads suggestions. First up, the weirdness that is the ring doorbell camera thingy is something that has come up several times on this show recently. So I point you to this vice story about Ring, about the whole history of the company, before

Starting point is 00:15:47 Amazon purchased it. The story of a startup, really? There's an interesting appearance by the startup early in its life on the show's Shark Tank. And also, it seems like Ring and its founder learned an early lesson about traction that maybe explains how Ring has gotten to the point it's gotten to. quote, Ring's mission changed for one core reason. Doorbolt sold disruption in the package of a doorbell, but fear is more powerful than the optimism of disruption. And Simenov is a passionate entrepreneur who was willing to do anything to help his business survive.

Starting point is 00:16:27 In 2015, Ring struck a deal with Wilshire Park, a small community in Los Angeles, home to about 500 people. The company installed free doorbells on about 8% of the homes in the neighborhood. According to police, home burglaries dropped astronomically. The results earned nothing but positive media coverage, and most importantly, it's been at the core of Rings marketing efforts for the past several years, end quote. Similarly, here's a profile of an app and a company that deserves more attention. Visco, B-S-C-O, the photo editing app that has led to the term, visco girls. Quote, Visco is on pace to surpass 4 million paying users in 2020, up from 2 million paying users in late 2018, the company said. Approaching $80 million in annual revenue,

Starting point is 00:17:18 Visco charges an annual subscription fee of $19.99 for access to a full suite of mobile photo editing tools, exclusive photo filters, tutorials, and more. For no cost, users can access a handful of basic Visco filters, standard editing tools, and loads of content. published by other users in Visco's photo feed, end quote. And hot on the heels of the Reignite conference, a long sit down with AWS CEO Andy Jassy on where cloud computing goes from here, quote, more enterprises are deciding to mass migrate and bet on the cloud, Jassy said to Silicon Angle.

Starting point is 00:17:55 When they make that decision, all bets are off. At that point, everybody they've been using before, everything they've been using before, everything is on the table to be reconsidered, which is interesting because it throws the world upside down. And it's a great opportunity, not just for us, but for really the entire ecosystem. Then Forbes says the hot investment area for Silicon Valley VCs right now is at long last European startups. Quote, what's changed? A mix of high-profile public offerings such as Adyen and Spotify and a maturing ecosystem that's made it a much easier draw for U.S. firms, facing intense competition at home to risk millions in

Starting point is 00:18:39 Europe. Spotify, the Stockholm-based music streaming service that went public via direct listing in April 2018, and Adyenne, the Amsterdam-based payments company that went public two months later, have created nearly $50 billion in combined market value. The IPOs of Cretello in Paris and Farfetch in London have also produced a network of millionaires, primed to write angel investor personal checks to smaller tech companies. Today, there are 99 unicorns, or companies valued at $1 billion or more, compared to 22 in 2015, according to Atomico's data. On the PlayStation's 25th anniversary, the Verge looks at PlayStation Now, as the verge puts it, how Sony bought and squandered the future of gaming. PlayStation Now had the keys to the cloud gaming kingdom, but Sony barely stuck a toe in the door.

Starting point is 00:19:32 And then a handful of interesting things to round out with here. ZDNet has a look at the biggest stories over the last decade in hacking and cybersecurity events. Windows Central breaks down the difference between Windows Notepad and WordPad and when you should use each. And have you happened to notice that the Mandalorian cites Fortnite developer Epic Games in its credits? It's because John Favreau has integrated Epic's Unreal Engine into the filmmaking process in a major way. Venture Beat looks at what that means. And finally, did you know that there are roughly 200 different mattress in a box companies now? Companies that will ship mattresses right to your door.

Starting point is 00:20:21 Roughly 50 new mattress brands launch each year, roughly one a week. And they all offer the same thing, right? A lengthy free trial where you can simply return the mattress for free. if you don't like it. So, given that many players, one could, in theory, sign up for free trial after free trial, right? And then so long as you send it back before the trial window closes, you might never have to pay for a mattress again. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at people who are apparently routinely doing just that. So two weekend bonus episodes this weekend, both of them timely, I think you'll find. One tomorrow. One on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:21:04 Enjoy those. I'll be back with you on Monday.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Fri. 12/06 - The Future of the iPhone is NO Ports?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.