Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 04/23 – Privacy Hypocrisy From France?

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 Tech meme right home for Thursday, April 23rd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Custom MacChips by 2021. Robot nurses already in hospitals, Bill Gurley into the sunset, why some people are accusing France of digital privacy hypocrisy and an interesting raise in the remote workspace, specifically remote whiteboarding. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. The Bloomberg team isn't letting up shaking the trees on this Apple Switch. to arm chips for Mac's story.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Sources are telling Mark German, Debbie Wu at all that the company is working on three different Mac processors based on the A14 chip, which we are all expecting to debut in the next iPhone that Apple is intending to release later this fall. And Apple could sell Macs with these chips in them beginning as early as 2021. Quote, Apple is preparing to release at least one Mac with its own chip next year, according to people. But the initiative to develop multiple chips, codenamed Kalamata, suggests the company will transition more of its Mac lineup away from current supplier Intel. Taiwan Semiconductor, Apple's partner for iPhone and iPad processors, will build the new Mac chips, said the people,

Starting point is 00:01:53 who asked not to be identified discussing private product plans. The components will be based on a five-nanometer production technique. The same size Apple will use in the next iPhones and iPad pros, one of the people said. And Apple's spokesman declined to comment. as did Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor. Apple is designing more of its own chips to gain greater control over the performance of its devices and differentiate them from rivals. Getting Macs, iPhones, and iPads running the same underlying technology should make it easier for Apple to unify its app's ecosystem and update its computers more often.

Starting point is 00:02:28 The move could also reduce reliance on Intel, which has struggled to maintain the annual increases in performance it once offered. The first Mac processors will have eight high-performance cores, code named Firestorm, and at least four energy-efficient cores known internally as Ice Storm. Apple is exploring Mac processors with more than 12 cores for further in the future, the people said, and in some Macs, Apple's designs will double or quadruple the number of cores that Intel provides. The current entry-level MacBook Air has two cores, for example, end quote. I've been hunting and pecking around to try to find a story that would report on how this is the moment that drone deliveries are really taking off. I mean, you'd really think this is the moment for that, right? But except for a few smallish stories, I haven't really seen any indication that drone deliveries are getting extra traction right now.

Starting point is 00:03:30 So meanwhile, can I interest you in a story about robot doctors? Boston Dynamics says that its quadruped spot robot is already in use at one Boston area hospital helping to treat coronavirus patients remotely. Quote, the hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard University, has been using a spot unit since last week for remote triage of patients suspected of having COVID-19. Right now, Boston Dynamics, which was formerly owned by Google and is now owned by Japanese Communications Giant SoftBank, is deploying Spot as a telemedicine machine. It's using a custom mount and enclosure for an iPad or similar-sized screen to be used for video conferencing between doctors and other health care workers and their patients. Today marks the second week of Spot's presence at a local Boston hospital, Brigham and Women's, where the robot is being deployed as a mobile telemedicine platform,

Starting point is 00:04:26 enabling health care providers to remotely triage patients, the company said in a statement. We're listening to their feedback on how Spot can do more, but are encouraged by the reports that using the robot has helped their nursing staff minimize time exposed to potentially contagious patients, end quote. We've seen lots of telemedicine used for remote diagnosis in this crisis so far. And of course, the Holy Grail would be something like remote surgeries and the like. But how about just eliminating the grunt work of making the rounds, going in and out of rooms, checking in on patients to see how they're progressing, without actually having to expose yourself personally to possible infection.

Starting point is 00:05:06 Boston Dynamics is also looking to add tools for remote inspection of vital signs, which would require adding sensors that could do temperature checks and even respiratory rate checks using thermal camera technology. And what about remote sanitizing? Quote, by attaching a UVC light to the robot's back, Spot could use the device to kill virus particles and disinfect surfaces in any unstructured space that needs support in decontamination, be at hospital tents or metro stations, the company says. We are still in the early stages of developing this solution, but also see a number of existing

Starting point is 00:05:43 mobile robotics providers who have implemented this technology specifically for hospitals, end quote. Speaking of technological uses in medical environments, this next one is a bit of a follow-up that's not exactly a surprise, though. Remember when, before the crisis hit, Magic Leap, that hugely financed, augmented reality startup, was desperately trying to sell itself to Facebook, to really anybody who might be interested. Well, yesterday, Magic Leap laid off half of its employees are around 1,000 people and announced that the plan now is to something, something, yada yada, shut down its whole consumer business, which was its main business, and pivot quickly to enterprise applications or something, quoting Bloomberg. Magic Leap's board is also considering

Starting point is 00:06:35 taking on new outside investment as well as a partnership with a large health care company, the people added. Abavovett said, the company is in, quote, the process of negotiating revenue generating strategic partnerships that underscore the value of Magic Leap's technology platform in the enterprise market, end quote. Magic Leap had been working with advisors on strategic options and sounding out deals that could have valued it at more than $10 billion, Bloomberg News, pre-werex. reported, efforts to command that high valuation faltered after global economies ground to a halt amid the spread of the coronavirus, the people said the plantation Florida-based company had already started to shift its strategy to selling its products to large companies in the healthcare,

Starting point is 00:07:16 industrial and financial sectors after slower than expected consumer adoption of the headset it had developed, end quote. As I think I said before, yeah, floating that $10 billion valuation as a possible price point for a sale was always wishful thinking even before coronavirus. And this should be a surprise to no one. According to Nielsen's Superdata, worldwide digital video game spending reached an all-time high of $10 billion last month, March, up 11% year-over-year, with $5.7 billion of that spent on mobile games. and the mobile game spend would be up 15% year over year.

Starting point is 00:08:05 This is from Hollywood Reporter. Leading the way was Nintendo's Animal Crossing New Horizons, which launched March 20th. The family-friendly title sold 5 million digital copies in March, a new record for any console game, topping 2018's Call of Duty Black Ops 4. The latest offering in the Call of Duty franchise, the free-to-play Call of Duty Warzone, which launched March 10th, also benefited from the lockdown. Warzone, a new add-on mode to 2019's best-selling Call of Duty Modern Warfare, increased monthly active users in the game by more than 150%, peaking at nearly 63 million active players.

Starting point is 00:08:41 March's other major release, Doom Eternal, also performed well selling 3 million digital copies last month, more than three times what its predecessor, 2016's Doom did. Overall, spending on premium console and PC games rose sharply in March as well, up 60, percent month to month, from $883 million to $1.5 billion, and 56%, or 363 million compared to 567 million, respectively, end quote. If whispers are to be believed for the first time in over 20 years, Bill Gurley will not be a partner in Benchmark's newest venture fund, which will be its 10th. However, Gurley is not expected to ride off into the sunset.

Starting point is 00:09:31 reportedly he will still make himself available to help companies he has led earlier investments in, quoting the Wall Street Journal. Benchmark reached out to its limited partner investors in recent weeks to raise $425 million for its 10th venture fund and Mr. Gurley won't be one of the general partners making new investments for the vehicle, the people said. Mr. Gurley remains a member of the benchmark team making investments out of the firm's ninth fund, which was raised in 2018. The move which is typical of venture capitalists towards the end of their careers doesn't signal an immediate departure from the firm, the people said.

Starting point is 00:10:06 Besides being part of the ninth fund, Mr. Gurley will continue to work with companies into which he led prior investments and is expected to be a sounding board for new investments led by the firm's other partners. Mr. Gurley, who joined Benchmark more than two decades ago, is most famous for his early investment in Uber. Benchmark initially invested about $10 million in the ride-hailing company in 2011, a stake that skyrocketed to over $8 billion in later years. That investment is one of the most lucrative in the history of venture capital, even after the decline in Uber's share price following its initial public offering. Mr. Gurley also invested early in online clothing retailer Stitch Fix, Restaurant Reservation Software Company Open Table, Food Delivery Company Grub, and Online Real Estate Company, Zillow, among others. Mr. Gurley didn't respond to a request for comment. For investors, all general partners at benchmark are expected to be involved in the new fund at its start. Peter Fenton, Eric Vichria, Sarah Tavill, and Chetan Putagunta, end quote.

Starting point is 00:11:12 I don't need to tell anyone listening to this podcast that Europe, and especially the country of France, have long been leading the charge to enact some sort of privacy regime that the big tech platforms would be required to operate. inside of. So this news has raised quite a few eyebrows, quoting from The Guardian. France has become the first country to call publicly for Apple and Google to weaken privacy protections around digital contact tracing after its government admitted that its current plans for technology contact tracing would not work without changes to smartphone operating systems. We're asking Apple to lift the technical hurdle to allow us to develop a sovereign European health solution that will be tied to our health system.

Starting point is 00:11:59 France's digital minister, Cedric O, said. France wants to deploy its app by 11th May without using the special measures Apple and Google have put in place, which are targeted for release in mid-May. That means the country will be forced to use the more limited features already built into iOS, unless Apple changes its policies and allows for far more invasive use of Bluetooth radio at the heart of its devices, end quote. So yeah, that strikes a bunch of people as hypocritical maybe. Here's tech dirt, for example.

Starting point is 00:12:31 The issue is that, as you'll likely recall earlier this month, Google and Apple collaborated on an API system to enable some form of contact tracing in various apps, but that is a voluntary, B, privacy retaining via regularly rotating identifiers, and C limits how much information would be sent to the government. And apparently, that's skidding in the way of France's more aggressive tracking plans. It's quite incredible to see this play out in practice, in France of all places. Again, the French government has been among the most vocal and aggressive in attacking Google and in insisting its privacy practices are terrible. But as soon as those privacy efforts get in

Starting point is 00:13:10 the way of the French government spying on its people's whereabouts, it's suddenly mad at these companies for doing too much to protect privacy. Maybe Google should see if the French government wants to pay back the fines it levied before it'll take the government's request seriously, end quote. As Alex Stamos tweeted, this is the natural endpoint of an online privacy debate that has always been more about culture war and competition policy than actual empirical evidence of harm. The moment there is a need for a reasonable balance of equities, 10 years of European rhetoric, just evaporates, end quote. Though as Alex Hearn tweeted, quote, I don't agree with France's demands for more data for their contact tracing app, but I don't

Starting point is 00:13:52 agree with the prevailing California view that it's hypocritical to ask. Governments, not tech companies, should be in charge of vast databases of personal data, is a coherent position, end quote. How about we end today with an interesting raise Thursday that might once again, seemingly be poised to take advantage of the current moment in time? digital whiteboard maker, Mero, is raising a $50 million series B round led by iconic capital with an assist from a cell in order to take advantage of a surge in demand for, you know, remote planning and whiteboarding.

Starting point is 00:14:34 Quoting TechCrunch. Today's investment brings the total raise to around $75 million, according to the company. Among the company's angel investors was basketball star Steph Curry. What's attracting this level of investment is that this is a product made for a moment when workers are forced to stay home. One of the primary complaints about working at home is the inability to sit in the same room with colleagues and brainstorm around a whiteboard. This reproduces that to an extent. What's more, Miro isn't simply a lightweight add-in like you might find built into a collaboration tool like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. It's more of a platform play

Starting point is 00:15:10 designed to integrate with many different enterprise tools, much like Slack does for communications. Miro co-founder and CEO Audrey Cucid said the company planned the platform idea from its earliest days. The concept from day one was building something for real-time collaboration, and the platform thing is very important because we expect that people will build on top of our product, Cucid told TechCrunch. That means that people can build integrations to other common tools and customize the base tool to meet the needs of an individual team or organization. It's an approach that seems to be working. As the company reports, it's profitable with. more than 21,000 customers including 80% of the Fortune 100. Customers include Netflix, Salesforce, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Spotify, Expedia, and Deloitte. Coussides says usage has been skyrocketing

Starting point is 00:15:59 among both businesses and educational customers as the pandemic has forced millions of people to work at home. He says that has been a challenge for his engineering team to keep up with the demand, but one that the company has been able to meet to this point. The startup just passed the 300 employee mark this week and it will continue to hire with this new influx of money, end quote. That's all for today. Quick reminder of all of our channels. You can always follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC. If you want to tip me stories, our subreddit is R slash Ride Home. We do have podcast classifieds if you'd like me to read a message to your fellow listeners. Just go to ridehome.com info forward slash classifies to submit a classified ad copy. And if you want to avoid ads completely

Starting point is 00:16:52 and also support the show directly at the exact same time, the very bottom link in the show notes is to the ad free feed, which you can actually subscribe to right there in your podcast app without having to do anything extra. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 04/23 – Privacy Hypocrisy From France?

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