Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 02/28 – The Tech World Rides The War Whirlwind

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 Monday, February 28th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. I'll try to run down everything I can about the tech world and the Ukraine situation. There's a ton to talk about. Qualcomm's new 5G modem, TikTok's new 10-minute videos, Lenovo's new laptops, and should Apple release a

Starting point is 00:00:52 $200 iPhone? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. You know, I could swear there was a time not that long ago, even within the lifetime of my own children, where we could go years without any truly earth-shattering news happening. But that's not the version of the simulation we are living in. The version of the simulation we are in has world-changing news happening every year now, every month, every friggin weekend, seemingly so a rundown of everything that has happened over the weekend with the story that you all know about, but through the lens of tech. I'm sure you've heard, that the U.S., EU, UK, and Canada have agreed to cut off a, quote, certain number of Russian banks from the Swift International Payment System.

Starting point is 00:01:44 This has resulted in customers of sanctioned Russian banks unable to use their cards with things like Apple Pay and Google Pay, according to the Central Bank of Russia. Over the weekend, Facebook and Twitter also removed two anti-Ukrainian, quote, covert influence operations, one tied to Russia and the other to Belarus. Russia's regulators have demanded that Alphabet remove all restrictions on Russian language YouTube channels of media outlets, RBC, TV Zvenda, and Sputnik in Ukraine. YouTube has begun to bow to pressure to at least demonetize and in some cases block YouTube channels that can be traced to government-backed propaganda. Not only that, Google has gone so far as to bar Russian state-funded

Starting point is 00:02:29 media from using its ad technology to generate revenue on their own websites and apps. Meta has prohibited Russian state media organizations from running ads or monetizing on its platform anywhere in the world, possibly related. Russia's leading internet providers have begun restricting access to Twitter and Facebook. Then TSM, Intel, global foundries, and other chipmakers have begun halting sales to Russia in response to U.S. sanctions. In a letter, Ukraine's vice Prime Minister Miyako Lekalo Federov urges Tim Cook to halt Apple's product sales in Russia and shut down its app store in that country. Oh, and you might have seen the stories that people were able to time the beginning of the Russian invasion by watching live traffic data on Google Maps. Well, Google Maps has temporarily stopped displaying live traffic and busy area data in Ukraine, but basic traffic navigation is still available.

Starting point is 00:03:28 There's been lots of talk that the Russians have been able to use location data as well for their own ends. Ukraine's official Twitter account and government officials have been posting donation requests in the form of Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT all weekend. According to an elliptic report, Ukraine's government has received nearly $20 million in ether and Bitcoin. Binance says it is going to donate $10 million in crypto to the cause. This morning, Airbnb announced it will provide. free short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. You might recall that Airbnb successfully did something similar, housing over 21,000 Afghan refugees last year. In a viral tweet over the weekend, Elon Musk said that SpaceX's Starlink internet is now active in Ukraine with, quote,

Starting point is 00:04:18 more terminals en route, but it is unclear when or how many. And one more thing. You might remember my rant on Friday's show. Well, echoing, that. This is from the Wall Street Journal, which says that the Ukraine conflict could accelerate the fracturing of the internet amid pressure on U.S. tech giants from both Russia and the West to respond in various ways to the conflict. Quote, The changing landscape has pinched sales and cut into profits by forcing American tech companies to increase spending on compliance with local laws, according to analysts, former executives, and legal scholars. They said the phenomenon has curtailed some internet users' access to services and information and forced companies to assess

Starting point is 00:04:59 whether they should subscribe to largely U.S. values about freedom of information or adhere to local laws that are often in conflict with those principles. This was decades in the making, and it's getting worse because countries are adopting more and more serious rules around content, said David Kay, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, and author of Speech Police, the global struggle to govern the internet. The most significant European war in 80 years has now revived a decades-old term about the rise of digital nationalism, the splinternet in which local laws and policies have created a series of national internets. The effect is a drag on businesses with margins being squeezed by having to hire more staff,

Starting point is 00:05:41 said Brian Weiser, an ad industry analyst with Group M. A few thousand employees could run the products in the past, but individual countries imposing obligations makes that impossible now, Mr. Weiser said, end quote. There was other news, of course. TikTok has confirmed social media reports that it is rolling out support for 10-minute videos up from a previous length limit of three minutes per video, quoting Android Central. It's not the first time, though, that TikTok has extended the video limit for users. In July of last year, the platform rolled out the ability to create videos of up to three minutes, a significant increase from only 60 seconds previously. The latest extension doesn't come as a surprise either,

Starting point is 00:06:26 less than two months after TikTok started allowing everyone to upload up to three-minute long videos, it was spotted experimenting with 10-minute video uploads. Longer video uploads should give creators more flexibility. Currently, when you're uploading a relatively long piece of content to the platform, you'll need to split it into multiple parts. As friend of the show, Matt Navarra pointed out, Matt was among the first to spot this testing by TikTok. TikTok's latest update demonstrates the company's growing effort to encroach on YouTube's territory.

Starting point is 00:06:54 It remains to be seen how this affects the platform's recommendation algorithm in the long run and whether the grip that short-form videos have on users will stay in place, end quote. Qualcomm has announced the X-70, its first 10-gibit 5G modem, and says that the modem uses a dedicated AI processor to improve signal strength and power efficiency, quoting in Gadget. The X70 isn't the first Qualcomm modem to use a machine learning algorithm to improve performance. Last year, the company leveraged the technology to make its X-65 modem better at adapting its antenna tuning to changing hand grips. But what makes the X-70 different is that it includes a dedicated 5G AI processor, a first for a cellular

Starting point is 00:07:42 modem according to the company. In addition to improving average speeds, Qualcomm claims the processor makes the X70 better at millimeter wave beam management, allowing it to establish a more robust link when using the notoriously finicky spectrum. It also utilizes that processor for network selection and antenna tuning, leading to better coverage and link strength. Qualcomm claims all of that makes the X70 capable of making the most of whatever spectrum resources a device has available to it at any one moment. Naturally, the X70 is fast, too. It's capable of theoretical download speeds of up to 10 GbPS. That said, you're unlikely to

Starting point is 00:08:20 see X70 equipped devices achieve those kinds of speeds in real-world use. A lot of that will depend on your carrier and the state of their 5G network. Qualcomm expects to start providing Snapdragon X70 samples to commercial customers in the second half of 2020. The company didn't name customers, but did note it expects X70 equipped devices to launch by late 2022, suggesting its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor could integrate the modem, end quote. I always like to tell you about new Lenovo laptops, because aside from MacBooks, I figure that the next largest percentage of you listeners out there probably use some sort of Lenovo machine as your daily driver. So, Lenovo has updated Windows 11 and Chromebook IdeaPads with 12th-gen-Intel

Starting point is 00:09:08 CPUs, and there's a whole bunch of other stuff like a Tab M-10 Plus running Android 12. That's a tablet available in June starting at $190. But the laptops, quoting XDA developers. The first of the bunch are the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex5I and IdeaPad, and IdeaPad Flex 5, which are essentially Intel and AMD versions of the same laptop. The Flex 5i is powered by 12th-generation Intel core processors up to a core I7, 1,255U with 10 cores, and 12 threads, while the Flex 5, oddly, comes with a last-gen-amD-Rizzen 5,000 series CPU, up to a Risen 7, 5700 U.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Otherwise, the two laptops are very similar. They both come with up to 12 gigabytes of RAM and a 1-terabyte SSD. for storage, and they both come in either 14 or 16-inch sizes. The display comes in at a 16-10 aspect ratio, and there are three resolution options, full-hd-plus, 2.2K, and 2.8K, though that last option is exclusive to the 14-inch Intel model. The two laptops also come with either HD or full-HD webcams depending on the configuration. For ports, both laptops come with one USB-C-type port, two USB-type A ports, H-DMI, a 4-1-1-1-1-1-8 ports, H-MI, a 4-1 card reader, and a 3.5 millimeter audio jack. On the Intel models, the USB Type C port supports

Starting point is 00:10:34 Thunderbolt 4, while the AMD models come with USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds. As for build quality, both laptops use a metal cover on the 16-inch model or a plastic cover in the 14-inch variant. The Intel model also has an optimal metal cover in the smaller 14-inch size, though. The laptop starts at 1.5 kilograms or 3.3 pounds in the 14-inch models at 2.1 kilograms or 4.62 pounds in the 16-inch versions, end quote. Lenovo also unveiled updated think pads, the X-13 with Snapdragon chips, the X-1 Extreme with a 165 Hertz display, and updated P-Series and T-Series machines with new Intel processors. Quoting the verge. The news I'm personally most excited about is the screen shape. A few months ago, Lenova told me that much of its portfolio would be moving

Starting point is 00:11:24 to the 16 by 10 aspect ratio this year. They appear to be keeping their word. Across the board, the new models are 16 by 10, taller and roomier than they were in their 16 by 9 eras. Some news that's a bit more intriguing is the all-new ThinkPad X-13s, which is the first laptop to feature the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform. Qualcomm made some lofty claims about this platform upon its release, 60% greater performance per watt over competing X-86 platforms and multi-day battery life. The ThinkPad X-13s will run on Arm versions of Windows 11 with its X-64 app emulation support. Qualcomm has touted AI improvements as well, including better auto-focus, auto-white balance, and auto-exposure and video calls.

Starting point is 00:12:09 This will be an interesting system to test, as we've seen mixed results from the battery life and performance of the 8cx Gen 2. These arm chips are generally found in devices with thinness and lightness as their top priority, rather than the high-powered machines I generally associate with the thinkpad category. Processor aside, the X-13's big calling card is portability. At 2.35 pounds, or 1.06 kilograms, it's not quite comparable to the lightest think pads we've ever seen, but it's still quite light for a laptop. It was quite easy to carry around Lenovo's demo area with one hand.

Starting point is 00:12:41 There's no fan, which probably helps with the size and weight, but Snapdragon chips are designed to be quite efficient. in the absence of heavy-duty cooling. The big news on the workstation front is the ThinkPad X1 Extreme. This powerful multimedia machine has been bumped up to Intel's 12th-gen core I-9 H-series processors supporting Intel's V-Pro platform. It also has a 16-10 display option for the first time. There's a 4K offering as well. The cramped 16-9 screen was one of my few complaints about the last X1 Extreme I reviewed,

Starting point is 00:13:14 so this is a big improvement in my book. and quote. Pricing and availability is all over the place for this whole lineup, as you might imagine, depending on what sort of machine you want. But the first of these will arrive in April, followed by releases in May and into June. I think we've spoken about this in the background before, but you might be aware that Apple has been in a running battle with Dutch regulators about in-app purchases for dating apps. Basically, Apple has been eating fines from the regulators and making as few changes as they can get away with. Now in a letter, Apple says it's App Store IAP changes for Dutch dating apps do comply with Dutch regulator rules and require only a minor technical change to enact,

Starting point is 00:14:00 which is not what the discourse has been, quoting 9 to 5 Mac. In the Netherlands, the company was told that it must allow alternative payment methods for dating apps in the country. The company reluctantly agreed, but made it as hard as possible for developers to take advantage of the fact. Quote, developers will need to create and maintain a completely separate app binary, which includes special entitlements and is only made available in the Netherlands App Store. As part of requesting the entitlement, applications must declare what payment processor they intend to use, purchase support URLs, and other information, end quote. The company followed this by saying that developers would still have to pay a 27% commission

Starting point is 00:14:35 if they used a third-party payment platform, making it more expensive to opt out than to stick with Apple. Dutch regulators responded by saying that this was not a, quote, serious proposal, and levied a fifth fine, taking the total to 25 million euros or $28 million. Despite the Dutch regulator rejecting Apple's proposed change, Reuters reports that Apple has written a letter claiming that the company has complied with the law and should not be subjected to further fines. Apple argued in a letter to the Dutch consumer watchdog obtained by Reuters on Monday that it has complied with an order to open its app store to alternative payment providers for dating apps in the Netherlands. the letter from Apple to the ACM dated February 28th said the solution it has offered would require

Starting point is 00:15:18 only a, quote, minor technical change with no additional costs, end quote. Finally today, an interesting proposal from Mark German. We are, of course, expecting Apple to announce a new iPhone SE 5G in a matter of days or weeks, but German says that Apple should keep selling the older iPhone SE models in order to bring the entry-level price on iPhones down to 100. $299. Quote, for years, the technology industry has been clamoring for a low-cost iPhone aimed at emerging markets. A device priced at $200 could make inroads in regions like Africa, South America, and parts of Asia that are currently Android strongholds. That would let Apple sign up more customers for services potentially making a low-end iPhone quite lucrative for Apple in the long run. But so far, the company has steered well clear of that approach. In 2013, when carrier subsidies began to disappear and demand for lower-cost iPhones grew, Apple executive, said they wouldn't release a cheap model just to blindly chase market share. It did put out the lower-end SE in 2016, but the phone was $399, well above the level of many Android's, and the price never

Starting point is 00:16:28 came down over the following five years. The company has stuck by Steve Jobs's don't-ship junk ethos. But when Apple introduces a 5G version of the iPhone SE, which could come as soon as early March, the company has a great opportunity to make a change. I suggest Apple continue to sell the older iPhone at a new lower price, namely $199. Third-party resellers are already distributing the current iPhone SE at under $200, and refurbished models are plentiful. If Apple offers its own $199 device, the company could have a hot seller in developing markets. It would also provide an option to shoppers who don't care about 5G service

Starting point is 00:17:06 and aren't interested in a $1,000 iPhone 13. By expanding its user base with a $199 iPhone, Apple could create more long-term services revenue and add people to its ecosystem. system. Those people may be more willing to try AirPods in Apple Watch or later on a higher-end iPhone, end quote, which makes a ton of sense. But as he said, this is a strategy that Apple has steadfastly refused to pursue. They don't seem interested in chasing market share. Also, what would a $200 iPhone do to Apple's vaunted margins? Still, the part that made the most sense to me is German's argument that more than ever, Apple is an ecosystem play. Get them in cheaply with a cheap iPhone,

Starting point is 00:17:46 and you can slowly graduate them to AirPods, Apple Watches up to the universe of services, Apple TV Plus, anyone, so watch this space, I guess. So I do believe these are the most links that I have ever posted in the show notes for a single episode of this podcast. As I said at the top of the show, everything is happening all at once at the moment. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 02/28 – The Tech World Rides The War Whirlwind

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