Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 09/12 – The Whole “Oops! We Lost A Prototype” Gambit

Episode Date: September 12, 2022

One of those new Meta Quest headsets just happens to have been found in the wild. New Roku gear. Starbucks announces an NFT project. A spinoff Google Moonshot that might be the next generation networking gear. And is TikTok in the crosshairs again, and this time, not just for the US government? Sponsors: Zengo.com/ride code: ride Medcline.com/techmeme Links: ‘Quest Pro’ video shows Meta’s next VR headset a month before its launch event (The Verge) New Linux malware combines unusual stealth with a full suite of capabilities (ArsTechnica) Starbucks details its blockchain-based loyalty platform and NFT community, Starbucks Odyssey (TechCrunch) Roku to Launch ‘The Buzz’ Short-Form Content Hub on Home Screen, Refreshes $30 Streaming Device (Variety) Google’s Loon Project Gets Resurrected. Without Google. Or Balloons (Bloomberg) TikTok’s Secret To Explosive Growth? ‘Billions And Billions Of Dollars’ Says Snap CEO Evan Spiegel (Forbes) 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, September 12th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. One of those new MetaQuest headsets just happens to have been found in the wild. New Roku gear. Starbucks announces an NFT project, a spinoff Google Moonshot that might be the next generation of networking gear, and is TikTok in the crosshairs once again, and this time, not just for the U.S. government. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. A Facebook user has shared a video of an alleged meadow. METAQuest Pro VR headset, claiming that META left the device labeled an engineering sample in a hotel room. Quoting the Verge.

The device shown resembles the Project Cambria headset meta has been publicly teasing since late last year and looks like the one spotted in leaked setup videos. The video shows Cardaneous removing the device from its packaging, revealing a black headset and controller with what looks like an updated design. While the headset has three cameras on its front, the controllers feature a design that drops the hollowed-out loop design that houses the sensors for something more solid. The packaging has the MetaQuest Pro label stamped in the top left corner and a graphic showing the VR headset and controllers. Cardenas also provided a close-up of the label

stuck to the box which says, not for resale, engineering sample, and told the verge that the person who stayed in the room has since claimed the headsets. The images and video surfaced exactly one month ahead of Meta's Connect event on October 11th, which lines up with the timeline CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed for when the company will reveal its next VR headset. We expect to find out all about the project Cambria slash Quest Pro and Meta's other plans for the Metaverse, AR, and VR at that event, end quote. Yeah, I hope I'm not being too cynical to point this out, but remember when it was, I think, the iPhone 4 that got left at a bar by an Apple employee,

and that made all of the headlines for like a week. I'm not saying someone in meta-marketing is using that same playbook, but I'm not not saying that either. Researchers say they have discovered Shikatega, a strain of Linux malware that uses polymorphic encoding and abuses legitimate cloud services to infect servers and IoT devices, which would make detecting this malware pretty difficult. Quoting Ars Technica, the ultimate objective of the malware isn't clear. It drops the XM-Rig

software for mining the Manero cryptocurrency, so stealthy cryptojacking is one possibility, but Shikatega also downloads and executes a powerful metasploit package known as metal, which bundles capabilities including webcam control, credential stealing, and multiple reverse shells into a package that runs on everything from, quote, the smallest embedded Linux targets to big iron, end quote. Metal's inclusion leaves open the potential that seraptitious manero mining isn't the sole function. The main dropper is tiny, an executable file of just 376 bytes. The polymorphic encoding happens courtesy of the Shikata Ghanai encoder, a metasploit module that makes it easy to encode the shell code delivered in Shikata Pailoads. The encoding is combined with a multi-stage infection chain

in which each link responds to a part of the previous one to download and execute the next one, end quote. In case you're wondering, because I was, what is polymorphic encoding? Turning to Wikipedia. In computing, polymorphic code is code that uses a polymorphic engine to mutate while keeping the original algorithm intact. That is, the code changes itself every time it runs, but the function of the code, its semantics, will not change at all. For example, the simple math expressions 3 plus 1 and 6 minus 2 both achieve the same result, yet run with different machine code in a CPU. This technique is sometimes used by computer viruses, shell codes, and computer worms to hide their presence. Starbucks has announced Starbucks

Odyssey, a loyalty program and NFT community built on the Polygon blockchain, launching broadly some time in 2023, quoting TechCrunch. The new experience combines the company's successful Starbucks rewards loyalty program with an NFT platform, allowing its customers to both earn and purchase digital assets that unlock exclusive experiences and rewards. The company had earlier teased its Web3 plans to investors, saying it believed this new experience would build on the current Starbucks rewards model where customers today earn stars, which can be exchanged for perks like free drinks. It envisions Starbucks Odyssey as a way for its most loyal customers to earn a broader set of rewards while also building community.

To engage with the Starbucks Odyssey Experience Starbucks rewards members will log in to the web app using their existing loyalty program credentials. Once there, they'll be able to engage with various activities which Starbucks called journeys, like playing interactive games or taking on challenges designed to deepen their knowledge of the Starbucks brand or coffee in general. As they complete these journeys, members can. earn digital collectibles in the form of NFTs. Starbucks Odyssey, however, does away with the tech lingo and calls these NFT collectibles journey stamps. Instead, additionally, a set of limited edition NFTs will be available to purchase in the Starbucks Odyssey web app, which also works on mobile devices. Though hosted on the Polygon blockchain, these NFTs will be bought using a credit or debit

card, a crypto wallet is not required. The company believes that this will make it easier for consumers to engage with the Web3 experience by lowering the barrier to entry. It also won't complicate consumers' transactions with things like gas fees, preferring to offer a bundled price. The company is not yet ready to share what its NFTs will cost or how many will be available at launch, saying these are decisions that are still being ironed out. However, the various stamps, read here NFTs, will include a point value based on their rarity and can be bought or sold among Starbucks Odyssey members in the marketplace with the

ownership secured on the blockchain. The artwork on the NFTs is being co-created by Starbucks and outside artists, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the limited edition collectibles will be donated to support causes chosen by Starbucks employees and customers. By collecting the stamps, members will gain points that can unlock exclusive benefits. These perks go beyond those you can earn with a traditional Starbucks rewards account and its stars. While today, members can earn things like free coffee, free food, or select merchandise, the points earned in Starbucks Odyssey will translate into experiences and other benefits. While Starbucks has been investigating blockchain technologies for a couple of years,

it has only been involved in this particular project for around six months. Starbucks' CMO Brady Brewer told TechCrunch, he says the company wanted to invest in this area, but not as a stunt, a side project, as many companies are doing. Rather, it wanted to find a way to use the technology to enhance its business and expand its existing loyalty program. It opted to make NFTs the passes that allow, access to this digital community, but it's intentionally obscuring the nature of the technology,

underpinning the experience in order to bring in more consumers, including non-technical people to the Web3 platform. It happens to be built on blockchain and Web3 technologies, but the customer, to be honest, may very well not even know that what they're doing is interacting with blockchain technology. It's just the enabler, Brewer explains, end quote. Okay, which, you know, if you're obscuring all that stuff, not to be that guy, because remember, I'm agnostic about Web3 stuff, but this strikes me as one of those things where, do you need the blockchain to do any of this? Roku has updated its $30 Roku Express Streaming Player, launched the $130 Roku wireless base subwulfur, and detailed Roku OS 11.5, which includes a new short-form content hub, quoting variety.

Roku unveiled a software update to its streaming operating system OS11.5, that among other features will introduce a new section on its streaming devices called The Buzz, stocked with short-form promotional content from entertainment partners. The goal, to provide another entry point for users to discover and watch new TV shows and movies. On the hardware side, the company is launching minimal changes to its product family for the 2022 holiday shopping season with upgraded models of the Roku Express entry-level streaming player and its wireless sub-wool. are now called Roku Wireless Base. In addition to the buzz, Roku OS11.5 will add two significant updates to its what-to-watch

feature, a continue watching option, and an expanded platform-wide save list, along with updates to Roku voice, expanding Bluetooth private listening to be compatible with the Roku Ultra, Roku StreamBar, and Roku Streambar Pro, the addition of categories to the live TV channel guide and a redesigned, more visual, Roku store section. The company said OS11.5 will roll out to Roku devices in the coming months. The new Roku Express at the same $30 price point as the prior model now includes dual-band Wi-Fi, an upgrade from 802.11 BGN single-band wireless, and additional storage, which the company says will result in faster channel start times. The streaming device, which does not support 4K Ultra

HD, will be available for pre-order Monday on Roku.com, Walmart.com, and Amazon.com, for a list price of $29.99 and is expected to ship mid-October. General availability at Roku.com and other major retailers in the U.S. begins October 16. The newly designed Roku Wireless Bass Subwifur is designed to work with the Roku Stream Bar, Roku Wireless Speakers, or Roku TV Wireless Sound Bar. It is slated to ship November 7. At a list price of $129.99, a Roku Steam Bar and Wireless Base bundle will be priced at $250, end quote. Interesting raise. Alleria Technologies was founded by Google Veterans to develop a high-speed network to connect satellites, boats, and more using lasers, building on the Loon Moonshot Company, quoting Bloomberg.

One part of Alirea centers on taking software used by the Loon Group and turning it into a cloud-based system for managing complex networks that connect things like satellites, planes, and boats with high-speed Internet. Another part of the startup has repurposed a second set of former Google wares to create a line of laser-based wireless networking equipment. At its office come laboratory in Livermore, California, where sculptures of sharks with laser beams attached to their heads dot the walls, Alaria has its two sets of engineers working on what it believes will be the basis of the networks of the future. Companies such as SpaceX and Amazon.com are in the process of putting up tens of thousands of satellites to beam down the internet from space to reach planes. cars, boats, and drones. Meanwhile, businesses and billions of customers in remote locations lack high-speed internet and are unlikely to be reached by fiber-optic cable-based systems anytime soon. Eliria aims to become the main platform directing the high-speed connectors at the right

places. The heart of the company is to interconnect everything that exists today with everything that exists tomorrow, says Chris Taylor, Alaria's chief executive officer. The company has its work cut out for it to meet Taylor's rather grandiose ambitions. Google, after all, only made this technology available because it didn't see a clear enough path to commercializing the products. Now, Illyria seeks to merge two disparate projects into a cohesive hole. The 26-person company has found some believers in Google, which exchange rights to its technology for an equity stake. J-2 Ventures and several individual investors have also backed Aliria with an undisclosed amount of money. The Illyria software system was known as Minkowski inside Google and was used to connect the loon balloons and other aerospace assets. The wireless networking technology was called Project Sonora and has never before been disclosed to the public.

Eliria has renamed the wireless technology Tightbeam. In networking lingo, it's a free space optical communication system, meaning Alaria uses lasers to transmit data wirelessly via light through things like the atmosphere and space rather than send information through fiber optic cables in the ground. Researchers and companies have chased this type of technology for years, often with underwhelming results. Heat, rain, clouds, and fog are just some of the, the factors that tend to disrupt the laser signals to the point that they become unusable. A number of the engineers behind Tightbeam, however, have been working on these disruption issues

for almost 20 years, first at government-backed labs and then at Google, and are now claiming major breakthroughs in overcoming them. Through a set of novel hardware and algorithms, the tightbeam technology analyzes the effects that, say, rain is having on a signal and then tries to reverse them and smooth out the signal. Alaria says it can send data at speeds up to 1.6 terabits per second over hundreds of miles, which would be about a thousand times faster than similar technology currently in use. Alaria demonstrated its technology by sending a signal from the rooftop of its headquarters to a mountain top 20 miles away and back. In another test, it sent a signal from the ground to a volleyball-sized receiver on an airplane flying about 100 miles away. We can deliver

one gigabit per second to every seat on a plane, Taylor says. This would be hundreds of times faster than current in-flight internet systems, end quote, which, you know, sounds big, if true. Finally, today I've said on the show now a couple times, or at least on one or two of the Twitter spaces, that over and over again, I keep hearing from people that these days, running a consumer-facing brand is nothing more or less than operating a successful TikTok account. The traction is simply that good on TikTok, the flood of sales, that important, as to crowd out traditional channels like Instagram, Facebook, or even Google search. Nothing really new there. We've known for a while that TikTok is a monster now.

Every competitor to TikTok is basically upfront about the fact that TikTok is increasingly eating their lunch. But what's new is this. It's been noticed by not a few folks that at the recent code conference with Keros Swisher, CEOs of TikTok competitors, but also politicians as well, increasingly voiced concerns again about TikTok's power, rapid growth, and surveillance potential, as some of them called for the app to be banned altogether, quoting Forbes. It just feels like they are kicking the shit out of everybody, Scott Galloway, co-host of the Pivot podcast and a marketing professor at NYU Stern told SNAP CEO Evan Spiegel at the Code Conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The reason why this has been so challenging for companies to respond to

in the United States but also around the world is the scale of TikTok's investments, said Spiegel of Snap, which recently laid off some 20% of its own workforce. What nobody had anticipated in the United States was the level of investment that ByteDance made into the U.S. market, and of course in Europe, because it was just something that was unimaginable. No startup could afford to invest billions and billions and billions of dollars in user acquisition like that around the world, Spiegel said Wednesday night. It was a totally different strategy than any technology company had expected before because it wasn't an innovation-led strategy, it was really about subsidizing large-scale user acquisition, end quote. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also pointed to TikTok as one of his company's

newest biggest rivals, particularly with regards to YouTube. He said in a code interview Tuesday that, quote, competition in tech is hyper-intense and that some of that heat, like from TikTok, has come seemingly out of nowhere. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is leading tech antitrust legislation targeting the power of Google, Apple, Amazon, and meta, warned that TikTok, too, could soon be part of that mix. Perhaps the strongest criticism of TikTok at code came from Matthias Domfner, CEO of Axel Springer, which owns news outlets including insider, Politico, and Protocol. Dothner described TikTok as its, quote, most prominent competitor in the media, content, and creative industries, and called for the platform to be banned.

Quote, TikTok should be banned in every democracy. Dopfner said, I think it's silly not to do that. we cannot enter China with Facebook, with Google, with Amazon, with other platforms. So why would we allow them to play such a dominant role in our free market economy? In the long run, he added, quote, we will feel the consequences of this dependency, and it's not going to be only a business consequence. I think it is really going to be also a political consequence with a huge impact, end quote. So I'm pointing this out to maybe put on our radar once again that another run at banning TikTok might be gathering steam and not just by governments this time because wouldn't it be

convenient for these incumbent platforms to have an excuse to kneecap TikTok if they're so afraid of the competition. The traditional way, of course, for platforms to pull the bridge up after they've built their competitive moats is by acquisition. But that's off the table right now, right? So what if banning your competitors for markets you compete in is very much on the table? I'm not taking a side on this either way. I'm just saying, what if there's a new way to kill the competition? That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow.