Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/31 – TikTok Has A Buyer?

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 Monday. The final day of August 2020, I'm Brian McCullough. Today has TikTok found its buyer.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Lenovo launches its flagship laptop. Netflix is offering free access to some of its originals. Amazon can officially start drone delivery, but drug cartels are already using drones for assassinations. And the billion-dollar black market for stolen video game accounts for games like Fortnite and Roblox. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. CNBC thinks the whole TikTok acquisition saga may be very near an end, which would be nice. Sources are telling CNBC that TikTok has indeed chosen a buyer for its U.S., New Zealand, and Australian businesses expected to be sold as a package in the $20 to $30 billion range. And the identity of this suitor could be revealed as soon as tomorrow, Tuesday.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Quote, however, even though TikTok has selected a bidder, the deal could be slowed or derailed by the Chinese government, updated its technology export list on Friday to include artificial intelligence technology used by TikTok. TikTok's Chinese parent company, BiteDance, said over the weekend that it would need a license from the Chinese government before it can sell to a U.S. company, end quote. Yeah, that's a little wrinkle there. The Chinese government appears to be leaning on TikTok suddenly to not do any deal. According to the Wall Street Journal, China's state media quoted a government advisor who said bite dance should study China's newly released export list and, quote, seriously and cautiously consider halting any deal.

Starting point is 00:02:09 Quote, China announced new restrictions on artificial intelligence technology exports that could further complicate the sale of TikTok's U.S. operations while intensifying the tech battle between the world's two largest economies. The new restrictions unveiled Friday by China's ministries in charge of commerce and science and technology covers such computing and data processing technologies as text analysis, content recommendation, speech modeling, and voice recognition. Technologies on the list can't be exported without a license from local commerce authorities, end quote. Yeah, but does TikTok count as falling into those categories? I guess it definitely does in terms of content recommendation. And I guess it does

Starting point is 00:02:49 if the Chinese government says it does. Anyway, so if any deal is announced tomorrow, there's no guarantee it will actually go through. But if you want my betting odds, my money, is on Oracle being the winner of the TikTok sweepstakes. Lenovo has announced its new flagship laptop line, the Yoga 9, which will come in 14-and-15-inch versions, both of those versions, as fully convertible to touchscreen laptops. The Yoga 9i starts at $1,39, depending on which screen size you select, while the non-convertible yoga Slim 9i starts at $1,59. quoteing the verge. The Slim is one of Lenovo's thinnest and lightest laptops, according to the company.

Starting point is 00:03:40 It's 0.54 inches thick and weighs 2.77 pounds. The 14-inch yoga is also fairly compact at 3.02 pounds, but their all aluminum chassis are designed for durability, Lenovo says, and can handle up to three kilograms over six pounds of pulling force. They're also meant to look and feel classy. The Slim Nine Eyes lid is covered in leather, a feature that's option, on the 14-inch yoga as well. There'll be the first leather-covered Lenovo consumer laptops. All of the leather-covered models include an edge-to-edge glass palm rest with a touchpad encased beneath. It provides haptic feedback to reproduce the feeling of a click. There's a fingerprint-resistant coating, Lenovo says, to prevent smudges. Inside the 14-inch yoga 9-I and the IdeaPad Slim

Starting point is 00:04:28 9-I both have Intel's upcoming Tiger Lake processors and new Thunderbolt 4 connection standard, which Lenovo says will enable super fast transfer speeds. The 15-inch Yoga 9i is a bit bulkier at 4.4 pounds. It includes 10th-gen processors up to the Core I-9 HK series, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a GPU up to Nvidia's GTX-1650TI with MaxQ Design, end quote. And Samsung has announced it has begun mass production of 16-gibit LPDR5 DRAM, the first version of D-E-R-E-R-E. The first version of RAM to use what is known as extreme ultraviolet lithography. Samsung says the process clears a, quote, major developmental hurdle for making more advanced RAM in smartphones, quoting and gadget. The 6.4GBPS transfer rate is about 16% faster than the 12 gigabit chips seen before, while a 16 gigabit

Starting point is 00:05:29 package of chips is about 30% thinner. That could lead to slimmer phones or space for components like batteries and cameras. Samsung is pitching this new memory as ideal for flagship class smartphones, including those from rivals. There's a real possibility your next phone will have considerably more headroom for simultaneous apps and demanding tasks. However, Samsung also hopes to bring LPDR5 to more in-car tech. If your next vehicle has a faster, more powerful infotainment system, you might know why, end quote. And Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 732G, a follow-on to the Pixel 4A's 730G chip that launched in April of last year. The new 732G claims a 15% improvement in graphics rendering, quoting 9 to 5 Google. On the Snapdragon 732G, the clock speed of

Starting point is 00:06:24 the cryo 470 CPU prime core now goes up to 2.3 gigahertz from 2.2. While Qualcomm touts a bolstered Adrino 618 GPU that offers another 15% improvement in graphics rendering, built on an 8-nanom to process, the CPU features two performance and six efficiency cores. Other features are unchanged, including the fourth-generation Qualcomm AI engine and the X-15 LTE modem. Quad-HD-plus displays are supported, while 4KHDR with portrait mode is possible. There's also Bluetooth 5, and the chip is Wi-Fi 6 ready, end quote. Netflix is suddenly offering free access to select original Netflix content, even to those who are non-netflix subscribers. This is only available on Android and the web for now, but the only thing you have to endure in order to sample, say,

Starting point is 00:07:23 the Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston film Murder Mystery, is a 30-second skipable ad from Netflix itself, quoting Gadgets 360. Netflix is offering limited free access to several original series and movies, including Stranger Things, Murder Mystery, Elite, Boss Baby Back in Business, Birdbox, When They See Us, Love is Blind, The Two Pops, Our Planet and Grace and Frankie. If you are undecided on whether Netflix is worth the monthly subscription, well, the streaming service is here to help convince you. With the free access, you'll be able to watch the full movie with all language options, though only the first episode of the first season is available for TV shows. And you don't even need a Netflix account to make use of this offer.

Starting point is 00:08:06 In a statement to Gadgets 360, Netflix said, quote, we're looking at different markets promotions to attract new members and give them a great Netflix experience. The free access to select Netflix originals is available globally at Netflix.com forward slash watch dash free. A Netflix help page for the same notes that only browsers on computers, Windows, PCs or Macs, and Android devices are supported. Other platforms, iOS, smart TVs, and Firestick, and Incognito mode are not supported. A 30-second skippable ad for Netflix plays before every title, end quote.

Starting point is 00:08:45 It looks like at long last, Amazon drone delivery is on its way because the FAA announced it has given Amazon permission to operate its prime air delivery drones, quoting CNBC. The approval will give Amazon broad privileges to safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers, the agency said. The certification comes under Part 135 of FAA regulations, which gives Amazon the ability to carry property on small drones beyond the visual line of sight of the operator. Amazon said it will use the FAA certification to begin testing customer deliveries. The company said it went through rigorous training and submitted detailed evidence that its drone delivery operations are safe, including demonstrating the technology for FAA inspectors. Amazon added that while the Prime Air Fleet isn't ready to immediately deploy package deliveries at scale, it's actively flying and testing the technology.

Starting point is 00:09:37 Amazon began testing delivery drones in 2013, aiming to drop off packages at customer's doorsteps in 30 minutes or less. In August 2019, the company submitted a petition for FAA approval of those plans. In its petition, Amazon said deliveries would occur in areas with low population density and packages would weigh five pounds or less. The company debuted a new electric delivery drone at its 2019 Remars conference that's capable of carrying packages under five pounds to customers within a half hour and can fly up to 15 miles. Jeff Wilkie, Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer, said at the time that the drone could be used by the company within months to deliver packages, end quote. Meanwhile, though, the literal weaponization of drones continues apace, and nobody asks permission

Starting point is 00:10:29 for this. After the proliferation of drones as flying bombs on the Iraqi and Syrian battlefields, the drive is reporting that Mexican cartel hitmen seem to have adopted the use of bomb-laden drones in assassinations. Quote, A civilian self-defense militia in Mexico's southwestern Machoican state reportedly recovered two dozen explosive-laden quadcopters from a car that a team of Sicario's, cartel hitmen, had apparently abandoned, possibly after a failed or aborted hit on July 25, 2020. The bombs attached to the drones consisted of Tupperware-like containers

Starting point is 00:11:06 filled with C-4 charges and ball bearings to act as shrapnel. Quadcopters with explosives believed to be. belonged to cartels were recovered in the city of Puebla in the state of the same name, southeast of Mexico City in April as well. Mexican officials said they believed those had been destined for attacks on cartels in the northwest of the country. The discovery of those drones led to raids that found more quadcopters as well as various electronics and bomb-making supplies, including more C-4. Mexican cartels, among other criminal groups, have already been using them to carry drugs over walls and past other barriers, as well as conduct surveillance. There have been more

Starting point is 00:11:42 sporadic reports of other cartels using small explosive armed drones since at least 2017, too. The barrier to entry when it comes to crafting small bomb-carrying quad and hexacopter-type drones is notably low in general. This is something the Warzone has highlighted on multiple occasions in the past, which makes the concept particularly attractive to non-state actors. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security identified the need for some kind of mobile counter-dron capability as an emerging requirement just this week, end quote. I learned, you know what's a really big market, the black market for stolen video game logins. In fact, the trafficking in stolen gaming credentials generates about a billion dollars a year annually,

Starting point is 00:12:29 with logins for Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, and RuneScape, just those four games alone by themselves accounting for 70% of the overall market. Quoting Bloomberg, criminals are using automated tools that can check 500 accounts a second to discover if login credentials stolen in various recent data breaches unlock any fortnight accounts. Some Fortnite accounts have valuable skins, changing the appearance of a player's avatar and can sell for thousands of dollars, said Vinay Troya, who runs Nightline Security, the company that released a report on this black market. An average account sells for $200 to $250, he said. They can't keep up with demand for certain accounts, Troya said. They resell it to people wanting

Starting point is 00:13:08 to play the game with that account. Maybe somebody just doesn't want to spend 100 hours of effort to get there, end quote. Account takeovers are a common problem among both social networking and gaming sites, but gaming accounts can be more valuable due to the virtual items they hold. For its report, Night Lion talked with illegal distributors and stores that sell game accounts. Distributors market batches of thousands of accounts on services like Telegram and Discord. Owners of shady websites buy them, allowing consumers to simply find them by Googling Fortnite accounts for sale. One seller hawks $20,000 worth of Fortnite accounts, a day, Troya said, end quote. Finally, a sort of state of things segment. Globally, tech IPOs could raise

Starting point is 00:13:56 more than $57 billion this year, which would mark the highest year for tech IPOs since 1999, when the peak of the dot-com bubble was going on, and when tech companies raised $62 billion, which I believe is not even inflation adjusted, quoting Bloomberg. The multiple environment for technology companies is at the highest since the dot-com bubble, said Lauren Cummings, co-head of Technology Equity Capital Markets for the Americas at Morgan Stanley. 2020 is the year a lot of companies are going public, but there are still many high-quality companies, probably multiple times of what we have this year, that are quality companies that are scaled that can go public next year, end quote.

Starting point is 00:14:36 Of course, there is one big thing skewing the numbers this year, a big thing called ant, which of course is usually a small thing. But quoting again, Jack Ma's Chinese financial titan ant group aims to raise at least $30 billion by itself in Hong Kong and Shanghai in October. Ant's giant offering may skew comparisons with 1999, particularly if it surpasses Saudi Aramco's $29 billion IPO last year as the largest in history, end quote. Also, this really wasn't newsworthy enough for its own segment properly, but the popular Twitter account VC Braggs, which often skewered prominent venture capitalists for congratulating and

Starting point is 00:15:20 cheerleading each other on Twitter is shutting down, quoting from what appears to be the final tweet from the VC Braggs account. Quote, we were hoping people would lean into the silliness of this meme account, which many did. But at this point, we don't feel comfortable operating it anymore. The video memes were fun to create, but the schick of this account is getting a bit stale. And seeing as some of the content is being interpreted as blatantly mean-spirited, we feel it is best to stop altogether, end quote.

Starting point is 00:15:49 They then suggested that any fans of the account donate to the Muttville Senior Dog Rescue Charity. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 08/31 – TikTok Has A Buyer?

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