Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/01 – Silicon Valley’s Great Scooter Ride Is Over

Episode Date: August 1, 2022

Apple opens up Apple Pay a tiny bit. But again, from pressure from the Europeans. Meta is accused of abetting sectarian violence in another developing nation. A deep dive into the seeming demise of the entire e-scooter industry. How much good will the CHIPS Act actually do? And a review of the new Dell XPS 13 Plus. Sponsors: KeeperSecurity.com/techmeme Links: Apple Pay may finally work on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox in iOS 16 (The Verge) Why dangerous content thrives on Facebook and TikTok in Kenya (Washington Post) Bolt Mobility has vanished, leaving e-bikes, unanswered calls behind in several US cities (TechCrunch) Japan, U.S. to launch R&D for 2-nm chip mass production (NikkeiAsia) Chipmakers battle for slice of US government support (Financial Times) DELL XPS 13 PLUS REVIEW: XPS PLUS, BATTERY MINUS (The Verge) Join the Mutant Podcast Army Fantasy League: https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/i8t2k1 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 Monday, August 1st, 22. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple opens up Apple pay a tiny bit, but again, from pressure from the Europeans. Meta is accused of abetting sectarian violence again and another developing nation, a deep dive into the seeming demise of the entire e-scooter industry, how much good will the Chips Act actually do, and a review of the new Dell XPS 13 Plus. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. In iOS 16 Beta 4, Apple finally has added support for Apple Pay in non-Safari browsers like Chrome and Edge. Now, before you get all excited about this generosity from Apple, keep in mind that this is probably in response to the EU's Digital Markets Act,

sort of like how thanks to Europe iPhones will be getting USBC sometimes soonish, quoting the verge. Mac Rumors contributor Steve Moser found that Apple Pay works with Edge and Chrome in the iOS 16 Beta 4, and shared his findings on Twitter. Moser's screenshots show a continue with Apple Pay option on Apple's checkout page when using Edge. Apple Pay only works in Safari on iOS 15 and older, preventing you from using any other browser if you want to pay with Apple Pay when shopping on the web. Although Moser doesn't mention Firefox, other users noticed Apple Pay compatibility with that browser before the release of iOS 16 Beta 4.

A post on Reddit from earlier this month shows an option to pay with Apple Pay in iOS 16 Beta 2 while using Firefox. Another user on iOS 16 Beta 3 says they have the option to pay with Apple Pay on Firefox as well. We're not certain of when Apple started expanding support for Apple Pay, and to which browsers, Apple didn't immediately respond to the Virges request for comment. And Apple Pay still isn't available in the latest MacOS beta. As Moser notes, this is likely because Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all use Safari's rendering engine WebKit on iOS due to Apple's requirements. Third-party browsers are free to use their own engines on macOS, so we might not see support for Apple Pay outside of Safari on Macs anytime soon. But Apple's change of heart on iOS might be related to the European Union's plans to crack down on big tech's anti-competitive practices. The Digital Markets Act is set to go in effect in spring 2023 and imposes a set of rules on large companies like Apple, Meta, and Google to promote competition with smaller entities. A draft of the new legislation obtained by the Register specifically goes after companies that force app developers,

to use their own rendering engines, end quote. Once again, folks are accusing META of abetting. Checking notes here. Ethnic violence, terrorism. Researchers say META is failing to moderate dangerous content in Kenya on Facebook, citing failures in AI as well as linguistic and cultural expertise gaps. Quoting the Washington Post, the shooter approaches from behind, raising a pistol to his victim's head.

He pulls the trigger and pop, a lifeless body slumps forward. The shot cuts to another execution and another. The video was posted on Facebook in a large group of al-Shabaab and Islamic State supporters, where different versions were viewed thousands of times before being taken down. About one in five Kenyans use Facebook, which its parent company last year renamed itself meta, and TikTok has become one of the most downloaded apps in the country. The prevalence of violent and inflammatory content on the platforms poses real risk in this East African nation as it prepares for a bitterly contested presidential election next month and deals with the threat of terrorism posed by a resurgent al-Shabaab. Our approach to content moderation in Africa is no different than anywhere else in the world. Kojo Bioki, director of public policy for Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey for META, wrote in an email to the Washington Post. We prioritize safety on our platforms and have taken aggressive steps to fight misinformation and harmful content, end quote. Both META and TikTok use a two-pronged content moderation strategy. Artificial intelligence algorithms provide a first line of defense,

but META has admitted it is challenging to teach AI to recognize hate speech in multiple languages and contexts, and reports show that posts in languages other than English often slip through the cracks. In June, researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London released a report outlining how al-Shabaab and the Islamic State use Facebook to spread extremist content like the execution video. The two-year investigation revealed at least 30 public al-Shabaab and Islamic state propaganda pages with nearly 40,000 combined followers. The group's posted videos depicting gruesome assassinations, suicide bombings, attacks on Kenyan military forces and Islamist militant training exercises. Some content had lived on the platform for more than six years. Reliance on AI was a core

problem, said Mustafa Ayad, authors of a recent report, because bad actors have learned how to game the system. If the terrorists know the AI is looking for the word jihad, Ayad explained, they can split up J-I-H-A-D with periods between the letters, so now it is not being read properly by the AI system, end quote. Terrorist groups can also bypass human moderation, the second line of defense for social media companies, by exploiting language and cultural expertise gaps. The report said, the national languages in Kenya are English and Swahili, but Kenyans speak dozens of other tribal languages, dialects, and the local slang known as Shang. Meta said it has a 350-person multidisciplinary team, including

native Arabic, Somali, and Swahili speakers who monitor and handle terrorist content. Between January and March, the company claims to have removed 15 million pieces of content that violated its terrorism policies, but did not say how much terrorist content it believes to still be on the platform, end quote. Bolt Mobility, co-founded by Usain Bolt, the famous track and field star, seems to have ceased operations and vanished from at least five U.S. cities, leaving behind a bunch of unusable e-bikes. Bolt raised around $4.2 million in VC cash, quoting TechCrunch. Bolt Mobility, the Miami-based micromobility startup co-founded by Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt appears to have vanished without a trace from several of its U.S. markets. In some cases,

the departure has been abrupt, leaving cities with abandoned equipment, unanswered calls, and emails, and lots of questions. Bolt has stopped operating in at least five U.S. cities, including Portland, Oregon, Burlington, South Burlington, and Winooski, in Vermont. and Richmond, California, according to city officials. City representatives also said they were unable to reach anyone at Bolt, including its CEO Ignacio Zomis. TechCrunch has made multiple attempts to reach Bolt and those who have backed the company. Emails to Bolt's communications department, several employees and investors went unanswered.

Even the customer service line doesn't appear to be staffed. The PR agency that was representing Bolt in March of this year told TechCrunch it is no longer working with the company. Bolt halted its service in Portland on July 1st. Because of the company's failure to provide the city with updated insurance and pay some outstanding fees, Portland subsequently suspended bolts permit to operate there, according to a city spokesperson, end quote. Over the weekend, CrunchBase News had a look at the rise and fall of the entire micromobility sector, especially e-scooter competitor Bird, which is now a penny stock with a public market cap under $160 million,

as valuations in the scooter and bike rental sector collapse. quote, in total, well over $5 billion in venture funding went into assorted startups engaged in the renting, charging, and making of scooters in roughly the past five years. E- scooters were still hot enough last year that when the SPAC boom arrived, voracious blank check acquirers looked to the space for potential targets. Bird announced in May of 2021 that it would go public through a merger with a SPAC switchback to add an initial valuation of $2.3 billion. In truth, Byrd's financials didn't look great at the time. Its 2020 revenue was down over 40% year-over-year to $79 million. Net loss exceeded $208 million. Still, Bird forecasted revenue would hit over $400 million by 2022, and even that number would represent just a tiny slice of a global micromobility services market it estimated at $800 billion. Like virtually all VC-funded spec deals, it worked out badly.

Bird plummeted immediately upon completing its merger in November. So far this year, the price has gone steadily downward with shares recently going for less than 50 cents each. These are exceedingly bad numbers, even by terribly performing SPAC standards. For perspective, Bird's recent public market cap was around $135 million. At that level, it has to see its market cap increase by just over 20x or 2,000 percent to break even with the $2.9 billion valuation it reportedly scored in its 2019 Series D, end quote. Interestingly, the piece says, this is ground zero for the VC lifestyle subsidy going away for all of us. Apparently, your average 20-minute scooter ride now costs, on average, about $6.

That's more than a quick bus or subway ride in places that offer those as options. The U.S. and Japan plan to open a two-nanometer chip research and development center in 2022 and start mass production as early as 2025. on two nanometer processes to establish secure supply chains amid Taiwan tensions, quoting Nika Asia. The facility will be set up by a new Japanese chip research institution slated to debut this year, tapping equipment and talent from the planned U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center. The country's plan to research cutting-edge two nanometer semiconductors, which offer superior performance while using less power.

The Research and Development Center will include a prototype production line with the goal of starting mass production of the chips domestically as early as 2025. The bilateral supply chain cooperation will be included in a joint statement to be issued after the two countries' first two-plus-two meeting of economic and diplomatic chiefs in Washington on Friday. Taiwan hosts more than 90 percent of the world's production capacity for semiconductors in categories of less than 10 nanometers, used in devices such as smartphones, and the island also plans to start making two nanometer chips by 2025. The possibility of China using force to unify Taiwan with the mainland has set off economic security alarm bells, however. Japan and the U.S. aim to ensure at least some access to advanced

chips even in the event of a contingency there. Businesses will be invited to participate in the R&D Center, which will research chip design, development of manufacturing equipment and materials, and installation of production lines, end quote. By the way, as the U.S. passed that Chips Act last week to jumpstart domestic chip production. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that China plans to invest around $150 billion on their chip development through 2030. South Korea is eyeing $260 billion in chip investment by 2027 and the EU plans $40 billion. The Chips Act, you'll recall, was roughly $77 billion in subsidies and tax credits. But even then, according to the Financial Times, the CHIPS Act's financial aid is unlikely to cover all giant projects, meaning that

money might not go as far as you think. Quote, it's not as big as everyone thinks, said Pat Moorhead, a U.S. Chips analyst. With advanced chip manufacturing plants costing more than $10 billion, the Department of Commerce, which will be responsible for deciding who gets the money, will face some difficult choices, he said. The legislation includes $39 billion over five years to support the construction of new fabs, with grants of up to $3 billion for each project. Another $11 billion is set aside for R&D, with $2 billion for projects considered important by the Pentagon. Intel alone hopes to secure $12 billion of the construction grants, or nearly a third of the total, for two fabs under construction in Arizona and two more for which it is close to breaking ground in Ohio.

Others who have been angling for the money include the two chipmakers that have leapfrogged Intel in recent years to master the most advanced or leading-edge chip-making techniques, TSM, which is building a $12 billion fab in Arizona, and Samsung, which is working on a $17 billion facility in Texas. Both plants are due to begin producing chips in 2024. Although Congress has agreed to make the grants available to foreign companies, domestic chipmakers are lobbying hard to make sure the lion's share of the money goes to American companies. An executive at one U.S. chipmaker said that the Commerce Department should favor companies that carry out their R&D in the U.S. and employed

largest number of workers there, things that would clearly favor American companies. The Commerce Department has not yet revealed the application process or said how it will pick priorities for taxpayer support. U.S. officials must also decide how much of the money to allocate to the most expensive leading edge fabs, which supply chains for demanding high volume uses like smartphones and PCs. That would mean throwing full support behind Intel, which lost its technological lead in global chipmaking to TSM and Samsung and has been investing heavily to claw its way back. On the same day that the House passed the Chips Act. Intel shocked Wall Street with a slump in its latest quarterly results and said it would cut its capital spending plans for this year by $4 billion. However, it did not

change longer-term plans for its advanced new fabs. The plants are central to the company's goal of trying to compete head-on with TSM by becoming a foundry that manufactures chips on behalf of other companies rather than only to its own designs, end quote. Finally today, a gadget review. The Verge says the new Dell XPS 13 plus laptop is thin, it's light, it has a great OLED screen, and a powerful P-series chip, but it's expensive, gets very, very hot, has poor battery life and very few ports. So the least of all worlds, quote, the regular XPS 13, no plus to be found, has long been one of our top Windows laptop recommendations. It's a standout in many ways, build quality chief among them. Dell is continuing to sell that model and has upgraded it to 12-gen processors. The XPS 13 Plus, however,

is a separate model and, as I understand it, is for folks who want to take that XPS's performance to the next level, anyone who wants as much raw muscle as they can get in a 13-inch machine. To that end, Dell has pulled out every shoelace to make sure the XPS 13 Plus is as thin as it can possibly be. The touchpad is haptic and fully integrated into the palm rest. There are barely any ports. The keyboard has been flattened and the function row replaced with a row of touchable LEDs, and the plus starts at $300 more than its non-plus counterpart. These are all compromises, Dell's cases, in order to achieve the thinnest and most powerful laptop possible. Unfortunately, the XPS 13 Plus is not that. It is more expensive and much hotter than laptops of its same size and

weight that deliver similar or better power, significantly better battery life, better webcams, and more usable port selections, and that's without even getting into the various finicky things with the keyboard deck. I can't be the only one getting deja vu here. This whole situation is giving 2016 vibes when Apple made all kinds of changes to the MacBook in the name of thinness that ended up. Not quite panning out. All of the innovation in the world hasn't changed what this laptop fundamentally is. It's an OLEDXPS, and I'm ultimately telling the same story here that I've been telling about OLEDXPS models for years on end. It's beautiful and it's powerful, but it's too hot. and the high-resolution screen is murdering the battery life.

I still use a 2019 MacBook Pro for work, and I'm surprised how similar using the XPS 13 Plus feels to that experience. Like that MacBook, the plus is thin and light, but it's also always hot, starved for ports and doesn't have a practical battery lifespan. Apple made those unpopular changes in the name of thinness, and it's perhaps telling that it's decided to reverse many of them in the past few years.

Dell's changes have been less extreme in some cases, like the keyboard, and more extreme in others like the ports, but I worry that the overall narrative is trending in the same direction, end quote. Congratulations to the English women's national team for actually winning the Euros yesterday. Goes to show sometimes you have to rely on women to actually get the job done right, but it was actually a great game and a great tournament, so one of my life goals has been met. Now if I could just get the U.S. men's national team to win a World Cup,

we'd be on to something. By the way, I know I do this every year and then abandon it about halfway through the season, but since the Premier League season begins this Friday, actually with Arsenal's first game, I did create a new Fantasy League, the Mutant Podcast Army Fantasy League. Link to join the League is in the show notes, though the league code is I-8-T2K-1. I swear I'm going to keep up with the league this year, but I expect to be football mad completely this year. more so than usual at least because, you know, World Cup year and Arsenal look like they're actually going to be good this year. So I promise to keep up with the Fantasy League this

year and whoever wins the podcast league, the Mutant Podcast Army League, I promise, will acknowledge it this year, especially if it's me. Talk to you tomorrow.