Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 04/22 – TikTok Back On The Chopping Block?

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

I know we’ve said this before, but TikTok really seems on the brink this time. What the heck is going on with Tesla? Tinder wants you to share your date. Streamers want you to stop dating around and playing the field. An open-source smarthome standard. And again, do we really need standalone AI devices when we already have smartphones? Links: TikTok ‘ban’ passes in the House again, moving to the Senate in foreign aid package (The Verge) Tesla lowers price of ‘Full Self-Driving’ to $8,000, down from $12,000 (Electrek) Tinder gets a ‘Share My Date’ feature for users to send date plans to their curious friends (TechCrunch) Americans’ New TV Habit: Subscribe. Watch. Cancel. Repeat. (NYTimes) The little smart home platform that could (The Verge) The future of AI gadgets is just phones (The Verge) Space Ghost Coast To Coast Marathon 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 text. Meem Right Home for Monday, April 22nd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today.

I know we've said this before, but TikTok really seems to be on the brink this time. What the heck is going on with Tesla? Tinder wants you to share your date. Streamers want you to stop dating around and playing the field on them. An open source smart home standard. And again, do we really need standalone AI devices when we already have smartphones? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So there was this big bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives over the weekend

that was largely about military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan, and humanitarian aid for Gaza. But jammed into that bill was that whole TikTok divestager legislation. Not exactly the same legislation we spoke about last time, because this gives TikTok a longer period of time to divest itself. But since this is part of those larger items that have serious political pressure behind them, are we closer to a TikTok showdown than ever? Quoting the verge, Due to the urgency of the funds, packaging the TikTok bill with these measures means that the Senate will need to consider the proposal more swiftly than it would as a standalone bill. The earlier TikTok bill, which passed the House 352 to 65 just last month, has so far lingered in the Senate with lawmakers there giving mixed messages about its future. Notably, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, whose committee would normally take up the bill before it proceeds to the floor, had remained non-committal about it.

But after the version in the foreign aid package was released, she said she supported the legislation. That's because the updated language extends the timeline for BightDance to divest TikTok before the effective ban would be enforced. BightDance would get up to a year to complete the sale rather than just six months in order to avoid a ban. The new House text would provide an initial divestment period of nine months and give the president discretion to extend it another three, assuming there's progress toward a deal. The Senate is out of session this week for the Passover break, which could delay action in that chamber. Leadership could bring senators back early to vote, but that could be complicated by scheduling conflicts. As Politico recently noted, some lawmakers are scheduled for congressional delegation trips over the break, which could make it harder to bring back enough senators early to pass the package.

If the TikTok bill remains in the final version of the Senate package and clears that hurdle, it will head to President Joe Biden's desk. He's already committed to signing the TikTok legislation should it pass, end quote. In a memo to U.S. staff, TikTok has vowed a legal battle if the U.S.'s divestment bill becomes law, saying the bill is, quote, a clear violation of its user's First Amendment rights. Tesla has cut the price of its full self-driving software to $8,000 from $12,000 in the U.S. following a price cut from $15,000 to that $12,000 just back in September. There's obviously been a lot of news about Tesla recently, missed sales targets, layoffs,

cyber truck recalls, overall price cuts. I never know how much to talk about all that because what is tech news and what would be under other circumstances, just auto industry news. But I'm going to jam this in here as a way of noting all of that. Quoting Electric. In addition to the price drop, Tesla has eliminated enhanced autopilot as an option, which previously cost $6,000 for owners who already had. enhanced autopilot, the cost to upgrade to FSD is now $2,000 down from $6,000.

Tesla has been doing a lot of price cuts lately, including dropping the price of most of its vehicles by $2,000 just a day ago. It also cut the price of its FSD subscription service in half to $99 a month just a couple weeks ago, though it is still charging some owners $1,000 for hardware they already paid for. That new subscription price suddenly made FSD's $12,000 price seem quite steep as someone would need to subscribe to FD's. for 10 whole years before paying $12,000 in total cost, and that's not including the time value of money. So it seemed inevitable that people would lean towards subscriptions rather than upfront purchases after that price drop. Now, to make the prices a little closer, Tesla dropped the price of FSD to $8,000, or six and two-thirds years worth of subscriptions at $99 per month.

A little more reasonable, though still longer than many people own a car, and again, one should account for the time value of money. All of those prices are down significantly from the highest price FSD has ever sold for, which was $15,000 from late 2020, until late 2023, when it dropped the price back to $12,000. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly said that as FSD becomes more capable, it should also go up in price to reflect its greater value. Previously, FSD price increases were largely associated with software updates that added new capabilities to the system. Musk even went so far as to say that this means Tesla cars with FSD are, quote, appreciating assets,

potentially worth $100 to $200,000 due to their value as robotaxies. Though Tesla only uses those values when it's convenient, considering FSD, much less valuable when offering trade-in estimates to owners. But on a more practical business level, this move to lower FSD prices probably has less to do with the system's capabilities and more to do with boosting revenue during a difficult time for the company, having just posted bad quarterly delivery numbers and laying off 10% of its workforce. A lower price could incentivize owners to pony up for software, which had previously mostly gone up in price, giving Tesla a free cash infusion, end quote. Tinder has announced Share My Date, which lets users share their date plans with

friends, including their matches name, meeting location, date, and time, quoting TechCrunch. Tinder announced Monday that users will now be able to send a link that includes details about the upcoming date, including the match's name, meeting location, date, and time. There's also an option to type a note at the bottom. Links can be sent up to 30 days prior to the day of the date and are editable, so users can update the details whenever they want. Share My Date links are viewable for every recipient, including non-Tinder users. Friends with a Tinder account can view the match's full profile, but they can't interact

with it, including messaging the match. Non-users see a limited version of the profile in their browser, only being able to see the match's photos, name, and age, a Tinder spokesperson explained to TechCrunch. Like Tinder's matchmaker feature, which, like Tinder's matchmaker feature, which, like, Let's users' friends suggest potential matches. The Share My Date link expires after a certain period. This is to discourage people from sharing on social media, the spokesperson told us. The new feature was inspired by Tinder user data.

51% of singles under 30 let their friends know the details of their dates beforehand. The launch of Share My Date comes out of time when dating apps are experiencing slow growth. As of last January, there were only about 12.7 million installs in the U.S., growth of only 2.38%. compared to almost 16% growth in the year prior. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Tinder's total number of paying customers dropped by 8% year-over-year to 10 million, end quote. Another industry that has seemingly hit a wall in terms of subscriber growth is video streaming, of course. According to data from Antenna, around 25% of U.S. streaming video subscribers or more than 29 million users canceled three or more subscriptions in the past two years

as users increasingly jump between services. Quoting the New York Times, Americans are getting increasingly impulsive about hitting the cancellation button on their streaming services. More than 29 million, about a quarter of domestic-paying streaming subscribers, have canceled three or more services

over the last two years, according to Antenna, a subscription research firm, and the numbers are rising fast. The data suggests a sharp shift in consumer behavior, far from the cable era, when viewers largely stuck with a single provider, as well as the early days of so-called streaming wars when people kept adding services without

calling or jumping around. Among these nomadic subscribers, some are taking advantage of how easy it is with a monthly contract and simple click of a button to hopscotch from one service to the next. Indeed, these users can be fickle. A third of them resubscribe to the canceled service within six months, according to Antenna's research. In three years, this went from a very niche behavior to an absolute mainstream part of the market, said Jonathan Carson, that she chief executive of Antenna. The change gives consumers far more flexibility, but the implications could be significant for the major media companies, especially if this behavior becomes even more common. Traditional media companies like Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery, NBC Universal, and Disney are

trying to navigate the extremely bumpy road from the cable bundle, which was enormously profitable, to streaming, which is not. NBC Universal's Peacock, for one, lost $2.8 billion last year. As a result, the company's slashed investments in shows, the number of scripted shows in the United States in 2023 suffered its steepest decline in at least 15 years, and are raising prices to their streaming services, Disney Plus and Hulu, both raised the price of their commercial free tiers by $3 a month last year, for instance. Less loyal subscribers could introduce a whole new level of complexity to their business. Last year, these serial churners, as Antenna calls them, accounted for roughly 40% of all new subscriptions and cancellations, Mr. Carson said, end quote.

Let me turn you on to something I was unaware of. Home Assistant is an open-source smart home platform with an estimated 1 million users and its creators recently announced a foundation to help the movement reach the mainstream. Quoting the Verge, a community-built open-source smart home platform Home Assistant differs from its major big tech competitors such as Amazon, Alexa, and Google Home, because it offers four things simultaneously. Local control of your smart home that can be faster and more reliable than the cloud. Authority over and access to all your data, compatibility with almost every connected gadget, regardless of protocol or manufacturer, and the ability to make them work together. While many competitors offer some of these, few offer all. This week,

Home Assistant announced it is now part of the Open Home Foundation. The newly formed nonprofit will own and govern all of Home Assistant and its related entities. Its creators and inaugural board members, Home Assistant founder Paulus Schoutson, Gary Sy, Pascal Vizelli, and Jay Nick Koston all work on Home Assistant and the Foundation has no other members so far. In a press release, the Foundation stated its aim is to, quote, fight against surveillance capitalism and offer a counterbalance to big tech influence in the smart home by focusing on privacy, choice, and sustainability for smart home users. users. Home Assistant is known for its unmatched power and flexibility, but so far the platform,

which has an estimated 1 million users, has struggled to reach the mainstream. Home Assistant can have a steep learning curve, especially when compared to the relatively simplistic platforms like Alexa or Apple Home. Onboarding devices can be complicated. The UI has lots of room for improvement, and integrations can be hit or miss. Home Assistant is no one's first smart home platform, says, Shoutson, when people outgrow their existing systems and want more advanced control, that's when they come to Home Assistant, but he sees that the platform is at a tipping point. With the arrival of the industry-backed Smart Home Standard matter, with which Home Assistant is heavily involved, smart home adoption is pushing into the mainstream.

Home Assistant wants to stay swimming alongside Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and Google, all of which it's been competing with in the smart home for roughly a decade now. Home Assistant has never accepted investors, says Schultz, and he sees a foundation as the best way to grow. Shoutson, who started home assistant in 2013 with a Phillips who's smart lighting bridge, a Python script, and a mission to control his lights any way he wanted to, sees the foundation as necessary to both protect home assistant and move it forward. I want to make it clear that our intentions are to the world, that we're driven by a higher goal than money, and that we are not for sale, he says. The new ownership structure provides a stronger platform for growth, quote,

It gives us a way for people that take us seriously to help us reach a bigger audience, he says, end quote. Finally today, I believe I said something along these lines last week with regards to the humane AI pin, but this piece from the verge says it in greater detail. The title is simple. The future of AI gadgets is just phones. Quote, I love a gadget, but guys, I live through the era of camera companies trying to convince us that we all needed to carry a compact camera and our phones everywhere.

phones one. Phones already come with powerful processors, decent heat dissipation, and sophisticated wireless connectivity. An AI gadget that operates independently from your phone has to figure all of that out. And you know what looks a lot less doofy than a pin with a laser on your chest? Earbuds. People willingly wear them throughout the day right now, and the doofy factor definitely matters when it comes to wearables. I'm having a hard time seeing how a separate gadget can beat the humble phone plus a pair of earbuds or something like the meta raybans. Maybe there's room in our lives and our pockets for dedicated AI hardware. The gadget lover in me is all for it, but I think it's more likely that we have all of the

ingredients we need to make good AI hardware right in front of us, end quote. I agree. Again, what if your phone was just the mothership of your on-the-go AI lifestyle with a whole universe of devices, sort of being powered by and tethered to, and peeling off of that. These things, these smartphones are already damned powerful. Part of the problem with dedicated AI hardware is having to nirf the compute power. As Allison Johnson, who I just quoted from notes in her piece, the humane pin uses a Snapdragon processor from four years ago

and runs a custom version of Android 12. Quote, it's a mid-range Android phone. I declared at our next team meeting, waving around a mid-range Android phone for effect. You could just download Gemini and stick this to your shirt. Simple, trivial. Give me 10 minutes and I'll have a more powerful AI gadget whipped up, I said, which she proceeded to do. Read the piece for the inspired bit of DIY product design. She achieved simply by clamping a Motorola razor plus to the neckline of her shirt. To me, AI is made for the hardware we already have. Earbuds or earphones can get you very far, simple smart glasses with maybe just a camera. have been around since those snap spectacles right. I mean, the real intermediate step here should just be make the AI better on the smartphone, and we already have the tools we need. Earbuds for voice interface, the camera on the glasses for interrogating the world around you,

maybe use the smartwatch to record ambient noise and conversations like that AI pendant limitless is trying for. With all this combined, you can already get to the point where you don't use your screen that much because you don't have to, but throwing it out completely is a kludy solution because it precludes you from having the screen when you want it. You sure you don't want to be able to pull out a YouTube video when you're bored? Why give up the option entirely? The argument can be made that good product design is not throwing things out wholesale so much as shaving down the edges and lopping off vestigial pieces.

But mobile computing won for a very, very good reason, people. We've got supercomputers we carry around in our pockets already. Public service announcement for listeners of a certain age cohort. It was brought to my attention this weekend that there is now an adult swim channel on YouTube that is nothing but a 24-7 marathon of Space Ghost Coast to Coast episodes. Link in the bottom of the show notes. You can thank me later. Talk to you tomorrow.