Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 12/12 – The New Xiaomi 13 Flagships

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 TechMame right home for Monday, December 12th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Jaumee has released its newest flagship smartphones, a bunch of worrying headlines surrounding Binance. Twitter Blue is back. Have scientists finally made a major breakthrough in fusion energy tech?

Starting point is 00:00:50 And why Google is hesitant to release its answer to chat GPT? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Hey, we have an actual new gadget to talk about today. Xiaomi has announced the around $575, Xiaomi 13 and around $270, Xiaomi 13 Pro, adding a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset available in China, and the Watch S2, Buds 4, a whole bunch more, quoting Android Police. Besides the usual glass and metal, buyers of the Xiaomi 13 lineup will be treated to a so-called skin surface

Starting point is 00:01:30 with micro-ceramics playing into the soft feel while ensuring that the back of the device won't peel or discolor over time. The Jaume 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro stick to the script on the mechanics, however. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip set is front and center here with LPDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage on offer. Both phones get the same configurations, 128 and 256, 256 and 512 gigabytes of memory. The 13 has the smaller footprint of the pair with a 6.36-inch, 1080p OLED display running at up to 120 hertz. The 13 Pro moves up to 1440p across 6.73 inches.

Starting point is 00:02:12 After a dalliance with Samsung sensors in the 12-series, Zhaum, returns to the Sony on the 13S, the IMX 800 sensor we saw on the Honor 70 heads to the Xiaomi 13 with max output of 50 megapixels still an 8K-240 video, while the massive 1-inch IMX 989 as seen on the Xiaomi 12S Ultra this summer gets souped up and carried over to the Xiaomi 13 Pro with better performance and low light, achieving similar results with the sensors sensitivity boosted by 72%. The pro is also blessed with 50 megapixel sensors for the telephoto around 75 millimeter equivalent and ultra-wide around 14 millimeter units. The Xiaomi 13 gets a 10 megapixel telephoto camera and a 12 megapixel ultra-wide. The main sensors have enhanced hyper OIS, while the telephoto lenses have standard OIS.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Both feature a 32 megapixel selfie camera. With a cable, Xiaomi surge charging can fill the Xiaomi 13's 4,500-m-amp hour battery at rates up to 67 watts, while the Xiaomi 13 pros, 4,820-m-hour battery can take in up to 120 watts. The phones also support the company's proprietary 50-watt wireless charging standard, as well as Chi at 10 watts. regardless of how you charge them, they're boasted to last the longest of any premium Xiaomi device to date with bigger vapor and copper cooling systems and efficient energy use. MIUI 14, presumably based on top of Android 13, is supposed to play a big part with the firmware shrinking in size and focused on cutting down app processes.

Starting point is 00:03:45 The company is also out with a new Xiaomi Watch S2, Xiaomi Buds 4, Xiaomi SoundPro room speaker, Zhaumee router 10,000 for Wi-Fi and the Xiaomi mini-PC, featuring Intel's 12th-gen core I-5 processor, end quote. But back to the usual stories, at least usual lately, lots of Binance news today. According to critics, Mazar's recent Binance proof-of-reserve report only covers a small set of financial data, which raises fresh questions about Binance's ability to meet obligations. We've heard this one before, quoting the Wall Street Journal. Over the past month, Binance has publicized details about its crypto wallet addresses.

Starting point is 00:04:30 It is hired an outside accounting firm to prepare a proof of reserve report covering a portion of its assets and liabilities, including a small set of financial data, and it is promised more information will be forthcoming. The Reserve Report released Wednesday is a five-page letter from a partner at the South African affiliate of the global accounting firm Mazars. It contained three numbers. The letter wasn't an audit report, didn't address the effectiveness of the company's internal financial reporting controls and said Mazars did, quote, not express an opinion or an assurance conclusion, end quote, meaning it wasn't vouching for the numbers. Maysars said it performed its work using, quote, agreed upon procedures, end quote, requested by

Starting point is 00:05:08 Binance, and that, quote, we make no representation regarding the appropriateness of the procedures. When we say proof of reserves, we are specifically referring to those assets that we hold in custody for users, Binance says on its website, this means that we are showing evidence and proof that Bidenance has funds that cover all of our users' assets one-to-one as well as some reserves, end quote. Investors still shouldn't be satisfied with the report, said Douglas Carmichael, an accounting professor at Baruch College in New York, and former chief auditor of the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Quote, I can't imagine it answers all the questions an investor would have about the sufficiency of collateralization. Mr. Carmichael said, that's the main thing it

Starting point is 00:05:49 seems to speak to, end quote. The report said its purpose was to show customers. that the assets covered in the report, quote, are collateralized, exist on the blockchains, and are under the control of Binance, end quote. Well, hopefully those concerns don't compound with this. Binance CEO's CZ has been forced to temporarily suspend accounts over what he called abnormal alt-coin trading, following a public spat with a high-profile crypto trader. And meanwhile, sources say U.S. prosecutors are split on charging Binance and its executives over possible money laundering and sanction violations and have discussed a plea deal. Quoting Coindesk.

Starting point is 00:06:28 Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle began investigating Binance in 2018 after a spade of cases that saw criminals use Binance to transfer illicit funds, the report said. Other prosecutors believe that more evidence needs to be gathered before a criminal case can be filed, causing a split within the Department of Justice. Binance refuted the Reuters article in a statement with the Exchange's Global Head of Intelligence and Investigations. Gamberayan saying that Binance has, quote, responded to over 47,000 law enforcement requests since November 2021, end quote. Twitter has finally relaunched Twitter Blue for $8 a month on the web, but

Starting point is 00:07:09 $11 a month on iOS, with a checkmark coming to you if you pay for it after an account review, 1080P uploads, an edit button, and more, quoting CNET. When you subscribe, you'll get edit tweet, 1080P video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark after your account has, been reviewed, the company said in its tweet thread. It isn't clear what that account review involves, though an image included in the thread mentions the need for a verified phone number. On Saturday, Esther Crawford, a product lead at Twitter, said in her own tweet that, quote, we've added a review step before applying a blue checkmark to an account as one of our new steps to combat impersonation, end quote. When asked by a Twitter user if granting the blue checkmark

Starting point is 00:07:49 would involve verifying a user by way of an ID, Crawford replied, quote, we don't have ID verification in this update, end quote. Before Elon Musk came up with the idea of combining the blue checkmark with the Twitter blue subscription service, the verification process had traditionally involved things like submitting a government-issued ID and offering evidence that you were a, quote, prominently recognized individual. Musk's pay for verification setup has critics saying the blue check mark has become meaningless. Saturday's Twitter thread also said Twitter blue subscribers would, quote, rocket to the top of replies, mentions, and search, would see half the ads and would be able to post longer videos. Twitter Blue subscribers who already signed up via iOS for the earlier $8 a month price

Starting point is 00:08:30 will get a notification about the new $11 monthly iOS cost and can then choose to subscribe via the web instead at the $8 rate. Crawford tweeted, last month Musk complained about the fees Apple Chargers, developers, and companies for customer purchases made via the App Store on iOS. Crawford said the iOS and web versions would offer the same features and that Android users can purchase on the web and use Twitter Blue on their devices, end quote. It's entirely possible that this headline will go down in history as the most important of the day, or frankly any day this year, have we at last finally made the long hoped for breakthrough in fusion energy technology? Quoting Bloomberg. Scientists in California have made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion technology, producing more energy than consumed in a reaction for the first time ever. The achievement was made at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the research, who requested anonymity to discuss results that have not yet been disclosed fully in public. Lasers were used to bombard hydrogen isotopes held in a

Starting point is 00:09:38 superheated plasma state in order to fuse them into helium, releasing a neutron and carbon-free clean energy in the process. Scientists have been experimenting with the technology for decades, but getting the process to produce more energy than it consumes has been elusive. The reaction produce about 2.5 megajoules of energy compared to the 2.1 megajoules used to power the lasers, according to the Financial Times, which earlier reported the results. While the results represent a breakthrough, it's still a long way to creating a viable technology, let alone delivering enough clean energy to help wean the world off fossil fuels and limit climate change. Nuclear fission technology, which splits atoms and creates highly radioactive waste, has been commercial for decades,

Starting point is 00:10:17 and still produces only 10% of the world's power far less than coal and gas. Fusion's potential market share will also be challenged by solar and wind power, both of which are cheaper and have mature supply chains. Their main drawback, intermittent generation, is being addressed by a rapidly growing battery storage industry. Still, if fusion can be scaled up, it offers the promise of around-the-clock clean power with less risk and hazardous waste than fission. Investment into fusion startups like Commonwealth fusion systems and Helion Energy jumped to $2.3 billion in 2021 and will likely total more than $1 billion this year, according to Bloomberg NEF. The Energy Department previously said Secretary Jennifer Granholm planned to announce Tuesday a

Starting point is 00:10:57 quote, major scientific breakthrough at the National Laboratory accomplished by researchers with the department's National Nuclear Security Administration, end quote. Over the weekend, more concerned trolling about our new AI chatbot overlords. For example, experts warn that chatbots like chat, GPT, and Lambda pose what they call a hallucination problem, reshaping what they have learned without regard for whether the end result is true, quoting the New York Times. You now have a computer that can answer any question in a way that makes sense to a human, said Aaron Levy, chief executive of a Silicon Valley company box, and one of the many executives exploring the ways these chatbots will change the technological landscape. It can extrapolate and take ideas

Starting point is 00:11:42 from different contexts and merge them together, end quote. The new chatbots do this with what seems like complete confidence, but they do not always tell the truth. Sometimes they even fail at simple arithmetic. They blend fact with fiction, and as they continue to improve, people could use them to generate and spread untruths. Google recently built a system specifically for conversation called Lambda or language model for dialogue applications. This spring, a Google engineer claimed it was sentient. It was not, but it captured the public's imagination. Aaron Margolis, a data scientist in Arlington, Virginia, was among the limited number of people outside Google who were allowed to use Lambda through an experimental Google app AI test kitchen. He was consistently amazed by its talent for

Starting point is 00:12:23 open-ended conversation. It kept him entertained, but he warned that it could be a bit of a fabulous, as was to be expected from a system trained from vast amounts of information posted to the internet. What it gives you is kind of like an Aaron Sorkin movie, he said. Mr. Sorkin wrote the social network, a movie often criticized for stretching the truth about the origins of Facebook. Parts of it will be true and parts of it will not be true, end quote. He recently asked both Lambda and chat GPT to chat with him as if it were Mark Twain. When he asked Lambda, it soon described a meeting between Twain and Levi Strauss and said the writer had worked for the Blue Jop. Gene's mogul while living in San Francisco in the mid-1800s. It seemed true, but it was not.

Starting point is 00:13:03 Twain and Strauss lived in San Francisco at the same time, but they never worked together. Scientists call that problem hallucination. Much like a good storyteller chatbots have a way of taking what they have learned and reshaping it into something new with no regard for whether it is true, end quote. Now, you might have heard Google mentioned in there with its Lambda chatbot. So finally today, a follow-up to the question of Google's existential concerns regarding this new technology. If, as rumors suggest, Google's technology is actually better than GPT, why not release it? Well, according to this piece by friend of the show, Alex Cantowitz, in his big technology newsletter, you know how Waymo has refused to release its self-driving technology

Starting point is 00:13:51 more broadly, like Tesla seems to be doing, because, well, they feel it's not perfected yet. and so Waymo doesn't want to take the hit to its reputation by releasing something that's undercooked. Lambda is kind of like that. Since Google knows it's imperfect, they don't want to harm their own reputation as an answer company. But as Alex points out, if they wait too long, they could sacrifice good enough on the altar of perfect and might cede the market to competitors like ChatGPT. Quote, how Google missed this moment is not a simple matter of a blind spot. It's a case of an incumbent being so careful about its business, reputation, and customer-related.

Starting point is 00:14:27 relationships that it refused to release similar, more powerful tech, and it's far from the end of the story. Google thinks a lot about how something can damage its reputation, said Gerov Namede, an ex-Google product manager who was first to Helmits Lambda chatbot. They lean on the side of conservatism, he said. Google's Lambda made famous when engineer Blake Lemoyne called it sentient is a more capable bot-than-chat-GPT, yet the company's been hesitant to make it public. For Google, the problem with chatbots is they're wrong a lot. present their answers with undeserved confidence. Leading people astray with assuredness is less than ideal for a company built on helping you find the right answers. So Lambda remains in research mode.

Starting point is 00:15:08 Even if chatbots were to fix their accuracy issues, Google would still have a business model problem to contend with as well. The company makes money when people click ads next to search results, and it's awkward to fit ads into conversational replies. Imagine receiving a response and immediately getting pitched to go somewhere else. It feels slimy and unhelpful. Google thus has little incentive to move us beyond traditional search, at least not in a paradigm-shifting way, until it figures out how to make the money aspect work. In the meantime, it'll stick with the less impressive Google Assistant. There's a reason why Clayton Christensen wrote The Innovator's Dilemma. It's a real dilemma, said Box CEO Aaron Levy on Big Technology Podcasts this week.

Starting point is 00:15:45 Google doesn't inherently want you at an inherent level to just get the answer to every problem, because that might reduce the need to go click around the web, which would then reduce the need for us to go to Google, end quote. But Google's reasons to keep Lambda private fade a bit with a competitor emerging. A sophisticated public chatbot like ChatGPT makes waiting for the perfect business model risky. Delay long enough and you could cede the market. Chat GPT will also take criticism as it gains adoption, sustaining hits that otherwise would have been Google's. And ChatGBT's shortcomings will teach people to view it certainly with skepticism, clearing the way for a risk-averse Google to release its own version. But things could change in a hurry. Should OpenAI connect

Starting point is 00:16:25 chat GPT to the internet, it could push Google to bring its own product to market and its vision for the future along with it. And once Google gets involved, those who've seen its chatbot technology expect it to win. If chat GPT or some other product ever became a real threat, said Le Moyne, they just bite the bullet and release Lambda, which would smoke chat GPT, end quote. The Ride Home Fund just celebrated its first ever markup this quarter. for a biotech company of all things, a biotech and AI company from the UK. I've not told you about them because they're getting so much traction. They don't need to come on and grab the podcast megaphone.

Starting point is 00:17:13 But since they are getting so much traction, they're looking to do a quick series A after their priced seed round that we participated in. Problem is, I don't know very many biotech investment firms. If there are any biotech VCs out there that want to take a look at a company that is using AI and the gut biome to discover new drugs and improve the efficacy of existing ones, please get in touch. Brian at ridehomefund.com. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 12/12 – The New Xiaomi 13 Flagships

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