Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 12/19 – Elon’s Voted Himself Off The Twitter Island?

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

I dunno. Is Elon not the head of Twitter anymore? He posted a poll, people voted for him to step down. Who knows? I’ll give you the tick tock of what went down this weekend. ? Apple has canceled work on an M2 “extreme” chip. Google goes all in on encrypting Gmail. Why is everyone all in on encryption all of the sudden? And don’t worry, Meta is still all in on the metaverse. Sponsors: Masterclass.com/ride ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors (The Verge) Google is letting businesses try out client-side encryption for Gmail (The Verge) Binance.US to Buy Voyager Assets in $1.022 Billion Deal (Bloomberg) Bankman-Fried is ready to ‘face the music,’ prison official says (Washington Post) Apple Scales Back High-End Mac Pro Plans, Weighs Production Move to Asia (Bloomberg) Facebook’s Meta Will Devote 20% of Costs to Metaverse Next Year (Bloomberg) 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, December 19th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. I don't know. Is Elon not the head of Twitter anymore? He posted a poll. People voted for him to step down. So who knows? I'll give you the TikTok of what went down this crazy weekend. Apple has canceled work on an M2 extreme chip. Google goes all in on encrypting Gmail. Why is everybody all in on encryption all the sudden? And don't worry, meta is still all in on the metaverse. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, one of the advantages of having the weekend is we were able to go through an entire Elon outrage cycle to its conclusion without having to participate in the whole minute by minute.

Here's what happened, though. First, Twitter posted new rules saying that it would remove tweets and accounts that promoted or linked to accounts on other services, such as Facebook, Macedon, and more. Elon said that the policy would be like a no-spam rule in his words. Quoting the verge, Twitter would. will no longer allow users to promote their presence on certain social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth, Social, Tribal, Noster, and Post. In a post outlining these changes, Twitter says it will take action against users that violate this policy, quote, at both the tweet level and the account level, end quote.

This means users can no longer include links to their profiles on other social networks in their Twitter bio, nor can they send out tweets directing users to check out their Instagram or Facebook accounts. The policy doesn't just include links from other. platforms either. It even extends to posting usernames or handles from competing platforms without URLs. While Twitter's support page implies that users can no longer tweet out posts from banned platforms unless it's cross-posted to both platforms, a tweet from Elon Musk appears to contradict this policy, quote, casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of

competitors for free, he explains. Twitter may also suspend accounts, quote, used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform and will no longer allow users to link to third-party link aggregators like link tree or link bio. Despite all this, Twitter is still fine with the paid promotion of these banned platforms, although this feature doesn't seem to be available yet, end quote. So, in case you didn't read between the lines there, it didn't really seem very thought through, like everything else recently. Folks were not even sure if this could be applied retroactively, like maybe this was just a gambit by Elon to ban a bunch of folks he didn't like for doing something that wasn't against the rules but now was. But mainly it seemed like a way to keep people from saying,

I'm done with this. Find me on Mastodon, which doesn't exactly show confidence in your product or your strategy moving forward, does it? There was news over the weekend that Elon was trying to raise yet more money in equity for Twitter. So was this all telegraphing that Twitter is hemorrhaging users? people kept retweeting that tweet from Elon Musk himself, where he tweeted, quote, The asset test for any two competing socioeconomic systems is which side needs to build a wall to keep people from escaping. That's the bad one, end quote. Anywho, lots more people performatively took this as a cue to leave Twitter, including Y Combinator founder Paul Graham, who tweeted, quote, This is the last straw, I give up, you can find a link to my new Macedon profile on my site, end quote.

then we think his account got suspended. Who knows, a lot of suspended accounts mysteriously have come back this weekend. Because who knows anything at this point? As of this morning, Twitter had deleted Twitter safety's thread and the webpage detailing this new policy to prevent accounts from promoting other social media platforms. They also silently removed the policy page that detailed the rules that caused this whole brouhaha. So again, was this a whole 24-hour storm that is now over. Elon himself tweeted, quote, going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies won't happen again, end quote. But then he posted a Twitter poll asking, quote, should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll, end quote.

He added shortly after, quote, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it, end quote. The poll, by the way, stopped running a few hours ago, and the yes you should step down, answer got 57 and a half percent of the vote. So I guess this means Elon will step down his head of Twitter. Doesn't mean he'll sell it. He'll still be the owner. But I mean, also, we did kind of assume that this would happen soon anyway. I think I said at some point a few weeks ago, the odds of Elon being still day to day at Twitter by January 1st seemed like 0% to me. So maybe there's somebody already waiting in the wings who's going to be announced as the head of Twitter this afternoon, if the recent cadence of Elon attention-grabbing continues as it has been. But maybe the bigger question is if, as we all

expected, Elon is done now with his brief messing around and finding out with Twitter. What does that mean for the lifespan of Twitter itself? Google has launched client-side encryption for Gmail in beta and is letting workspace administrators sign up through January 20th. The whole thing is coming to Gmail for Android and iOS later on. Quoting the Verde. Google has launched a beta of its client-side encryption for Gmail, letting businesses apply to test out the feature meant to make sensitive data and attachments unreadable even to Google. The company announced the beta, which workspace administrators can sign up for until January 20th in a blog post on Friday. Once the feature is enabled and set up for a workspace's users, they'll have an additional option

when using the web version of Gmail. Clicking on a padlock will let them choose to turn on additional encryption for the message, though they will have to give up some features. to do so, including the ability to use emoji, a signature, and Smart Compose. Google says client site encryption will be added to its Gmail app for Android and iOS quote in an upcoming release. While the ability for users to encrypt messages will be managed by their administrators, which in most cases will be the companies they work for, the feature isn't limited to just intra-office communications. You'll be able to send encrypted emails outside of your domain, according to a Google help document, and even to people who use

other email clients or providers, such as ones from Microsoft or Apple, according to Google spokesperson Ross Rickendurfer. This is because CSE for Gmail is built on S-slash-Mime, an existing standard for email. Rich and Dürfer told The Verge in an email. Google has been working on adding more encryption to Gmail for a long time. In 2014, there were reports that it was working on end-to-end encryption for the service, though it's worth noting that client-side encryption isn't exactly the same thing. While using either means that encryption and decryption always occur on the source and destination devices, Google's client-side implementation gives administrators control over the keys and lets them monitor users' encrypted files, according to a help document from the company, explaining the difference between the two forms of encryptions, end quote.

Binance U.S. has agreed to acquire Voyager Digital's assets out of bankruptcy in a deal worth around a billion dollars, subject to approval at a hearing on January 5th, quoting Bloomberg. Voyager selected Binance U.S. as the highest and best bidder after reviewing options, the company said in a statement Monday. The bid, quote, set a clear path forward for Voyager customer funds to be unlocked as soon as possible, end quote, according to the statement, and the company will aim to return crypto to its customers in kind. The deal values Voyager's crypto portfolio at just over $1 billion and includes another $20 million for incremental value. The deal is subject to bankruptcy court approval, and a hearing is scheduled for January 5th. Voyager collapsed into court protection in July. Its assets were set to be purchased by FTX, but that deal crumbled when FTX itself went bankrupt in November, end quote. Sources say Sam Bankman-Fried plans to reverse his decision to contest his extradition to the United States.

Legal experts say any trial here in the U.S. is likely more than a year away, but at the very least, SBF appears to be ready to come home and get on with it, quoting the Washington Post. Sam Bankman-Freed, the disgraced and indicted former cryptocurrency executive spends his days in a Bahamian jail, watching movies and reading news articles about himself, holding out a sliver of hope that he will be granted bailed and soon leave, according to a prison official who interacts with him on a regular basis. Bankman Fried might also soon decide to give up fighting extradition and allow himself to be brought to the United States to face charges, the official said. Days after he arrived at the prison known as Fox Hill, Bankman Fried remains in, quote, good spirits, in the facility's sickbay, where he has been undergoing a medical evaluation for several days, and he has expressed confidence that his lawyers will persuade a judge to grant him bail after their first attempt failed,

said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. But if the lawyer's efforts at bail were to fail, Bankman Freed would then waive his right to fight extradition to go back to the United States to, quote, face the music, he told the official on Friday morning in a brief exchange. Reuters reported Saturday evening that the former FDX executive is expect, to appear in court on Monday for a hearing to reverse his decision to fight the extradition. The official described the young billionaire as, quote, a little arrogant, but overall a nice guy who has kept to himself and seemed, quote, awfully scared during his first days at the prison. He wouldn't laugh when the other men held in the same room jokingly asked him how he managed to

make so much money. Earlier this week, as Bankman Fried was watching a local TV news report about himself, the official asked him how he felt. He responded, unperturbed, Quote, it's okay, I will deal with it, the official recalled, end quote. Mark German, Apple Scoop Monday in his weekly newsletter. Mark reports that Apple is working on a Mac Pro with an M2 Ultra Chip, but has canceled the so-called M2 Extreme chip, which was supposed to come with double the compute power. Quote, the company continues to actively test an all-new Mac Pro and an M2-Based

Mac Mini to replace the remaining Intel models in its line. up. Apple had aimed to introduce the new MacPro by now, but the high-end machine has been held up for a number of reasons, including multiple changes to its features, a significant shift in the company's plans for high-end processors, and a potential relocation of its manufacturing. When Apple first set out to build a replacement for the Intel Mac Pro, it planned a machine with a processor based on the original M1 chip. The approach called for two main configurations, one chip equal to the power of two M1 Macs processors, the highest-end MacBook Pro chip, and another equal to four M1, M-1 Max components combined. The dual M-1 max chip ended up first launching in the Mac Studio as the M-1

Ultra, and Apple decided to push back the Mac Pro to the M-2 generation. The company then planned for the Mac Pro to come in two configurations, an M-2 Ultra version, and a double M2 Ultra that I've dubbed the M-2 Extreme. The M-2 Ultra chip is destined to have some serious specifications for professional users, including up to 24 CPU cores and 76 graphics cores, and the ability to top out the machine with at least 192 gigabytes of memory. An M2 extreme chip would have doubled that to 48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores. But here's the bad news. The company has likely scrapped that higher-end configuration, which may disappoint Apple's most demanding users, the photographers, editors, and programmers who prized that kind of computing power. The company made the decision

because of both the complexity and cost of producing a processor that is essentially four M2 Max chips views together. It also will help Apple and partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing save chip production resources for higher volume machines. Moreover, there are concerns about how much consumers are willing to spend. Using the highest end M1 Ultra Chip pushes the Mac Studio up to $5,000, only $1 less than the current Mac Pro. That's $3,000 more than the M1 Max Mac Studio. Based on Apple's current pricing structure, an M2 extreme version of a Mac Pro would probably cost at least $10,000, without any other upgrades, making it an extraordinarily niche product that likely isn't worth the development costs, engineering resources, and production bandwidth

it would require. Instead, the Mac Pro is expected to rely on a new generation M2 Ultra chip, rather than the M1 Ultra, and will retain one of its hallmark features, easy expandability for additional memory, storage, and other components. The aforementioned Mac Mini update will come in regular M2 and M2 Pro versions, while the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, Pro, Pro, are arriving early next year with M2 Pro and M2 Max Options. The company also continued to eye a high-end IMac Pro with Apple Silicon, but that machine has suffered internal delays for similar reasons as the Mac Pro, end quote. Finally today, remember the Metaverse? Yeah, well, full speed ahead with that, apparently. Meta-CTO, Andrew Bosworth, says that the company

plans to devote around 20% of its overall costs and expenses to its Reality Labs division, where the Metaverse is ostensibly being built in 2023, up from 18% in terms of resource allocation in Q3 of 2022, quoting Bloomberg. Facebook parent company Meta platforms will continue to vote about 20% of its overall cost and expenses to Reality Labs in 2023, despite questions about the business division focused on augmented and virtual reality and the so-called Metaverse. Meta stock is down nearly 65% this year, and some have questioned meta-CEO Mark Zuckerberg's expensive bet on the Metaverse, which comes as the company has cut other costs, including widespread

layoffs. Reality Labs reported a loss from operations of $9.4 billion through the first nine months of the year. Meta's legacy family of apps, by comparison, brought in roughly $32 billion in profit during that same period. Poswar said 2022 had been harder than expected, quote, economic challenges across the world combined with pressures on Meta's core business, created a perfect storm of skepticism about the investments were making, he said. Still, he added, pulling back on future bets to focus on short-term goals alone can have, quote, disastrous consequences. A 20% investment in futuristic technologies is a, quote, level of investment we believe makes sense for a company committed to staying at the leading edge of one of the most competitive and innovative industries on earth, he said, end quote.

So if my voice sounded weird today, it's because I got food poisoning over the weekend and my poor throat is still recovering. Should have heard it yesterday. Much worse. I can assure you. Also, over the weekend, I think I found my replacement for Dark Sky, thanks to your suggestions. It's an app called Carrot Weather, and the free version of Carrot is pretty good, but the $20 a year subscription gets you the ability to customize a bunch of things, as well as the precipitation notifications that I loved from Dark Sky, plus it even uses the Dark Sky API as long as that lasts. And with the customizations of the UI, I basically have been able to straight up clone the dark sky experience that I love. So thanks to those of you that

suggested Carrot. Other suggestions made included the apps WiiWWindy and Weather Strip. So if Carrot doesn't do it for you or paying $20 a year for a weather notification system doesn't float your boat, try those other ones out. Thank you, HiveMind for coming through for me once again. Talk to you tomorrow.