Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 08/06 – Will The US’s “Clean Network” Plan Break The Internet?

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

Will the US Government’s “Clean Network” plan lead to the definitive fracturing of the Internet we’ve all feared? Nintendo is killing it thanks to Covid and Animal Crossing. Are Samsung’s new earbuds actually Cool Beans? You no longer have to pay Apple $700 to put wheels on your Mac Pro. And why wireless charging could be a global environmental disaster waiting to happen. Sponsors: DoubleUp.agency BlueNile.com code: RIDE Links: Trump administration wants to see ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat removed from U.S. app stores, Pompeo says (CNBC) The US is building a new Great Firewall (Quartz) TikTok to Spend $500 Million on First EU Data Center in Ireland (Bloomberg) TikTok announces first data center in Europe (TechCrunch) Animal Crossing outsells Breath of the Wild in mere months (Polygon) SAMSUNG GALAXY BUDS LIVE REVIEW: COOL BEANS (The Verge) OWC undercuts Apple's $699 Mac Pro wheels with $199 conversion kit (Apple Insider) Wireless Charging Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen (OneZero) 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 TechMeme right home for Thursday, August 6, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Will the U.S. government's clean network plan lead to the definitive fracturing of the internet that we've all feared?

Nintendo is killing it thanks to COVID and Animal Crossing. Are Samsung's new earbuds actually cool beans? You no longer have to pay Apple $700 just to put wheels on your Mac Pro, and why wireless charging could be a global environmental disaster waiting to happen. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. In a speech yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined a new five-pronged, quote-unquote, clean network effort designed to curb potential national security risks allegedly posed by technology from China. This would specifically include banning untrusted Chinese apps from U.S. app stores. Let me go through the five prongs line by line.

First, a concept called clean carrier. The U.S. government is, quote, working to ensure that untrusted Chinese telecoms can't provide or interfere with U.S. communications. Second, clean store. Quote, we want to see untrusted Chinese apps removed from U.S. app stores, end quote. Third, clean apps. Pompeo said he wants to keep Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers from pre-installing or even making available popular U.S. apps. Fourth, clean cloud, making sure Americans' data is protected and can't be accessed by cloud systems from Alibaba, China Telecom, Tencent, and others. Fifth, clean cable, keeping undersea cables secure, particularly from Huawei. Quoting CNBC, with parent companies based in China, apps like TikTok and WeChat and others, are significant threats to personal data of American citizens, not to mention tools for Chinese Communist Party content censorship, Pompeo said during a press briefing.

top diplomat also added that the State Department would work with the Commerce Department as well as the Defense Department to limit the ability of Chinese cloud service providers to collect, store, and process data in the United States, end quote. I'm leading with this story because I want to underline what a big deal this has the potential to be. Yes, this administration announces a lot of stuff and sometimes they don't follow through. But if they did follow through, well, you know how we've discussed the potential fracturing of the open internet into all sorts of sub-internets, into a Chinese internet, a European internet under GDPR. Yeah, well, this would be another major step toward fracturing the internet,

and it's actually being led by the U.S. government. I'm going to let David Pierce in his source code newsletter this morning explain why this has the potential to be so huge. The Clean Apps idea is a big one with serious ramifications. Huawei is the largest smartphone manufacturer on the planet and cutting out all Chinese manufacturers like Apo and Vivo would shake up the entire smartphone ecosystem. It would also effectively lock American software companies out of countries like India where Chinese companies own most of the smartphone market. More broadly, a few people have pointed out to me that all these fights could effectively kill the open global internet. The Financial Times called the

TikTok saga part of the carve-up of the internet and suggested forming a sort of world trade organization for cyberspace. Otherwise, we may be headed down a road where there's not just the internet and the Chinese internet, but a web that ends at real world borders. If you make phone software or run app stores, I'm looking at you, Sundar and Tim, you may soon be under a lot of pressure to pull back access on both. If you make an app that's used around the world, also known as basically everyone in big tech, the idea of your app suddenly not being allowed on Chinese-made devices is an existentially scary one, and right now a surprisingly real one, end quote. As Jane Lee writes in courts, quote, some worry that the U.S.'s tech policy is now following

in the steps of authoritarian regimes, which advocate the concept of internet sovereignty, the idea that a nation's sovereignty extends from its physical territory into cyberspace. For years, China has blocked major foreign tech companies, including Google and Twitter, via a great firewall, both prevents its citizens from viewing sensitive information and offers protection for its homegrown tech champions. For the U.S. to also shut out platforms based on their national origin, critics argue, would suggest that Beijing's version of a fragmented, tightly controlled internet is triumphing over that of an open internet. Even the language used by the U.S. government now mirrors that of Beijing when it comes to the internet. The Chinese government, for example,

has implemented multiple internet cleanup campaigns to crack down on vaults, vulgar, pornographic, or politically sensitive content. In his announcement, Pompeo laid out five cleans to explain the areas covered by the government initiative. Quote, for decades, the U.S. has been perceived as the defender of free trade and free speech. The U.S., or at least the Trump administration, seems to have become less enthusiastic about those values, wrote Pavel Dura, founder and CEO of Messaging App Telegram in a post. quote, soon every country is likely to use national security as a pretext to fracture international tech companies. And ironically, it's the U.S. companies like Facebook or Google that are likely to

lose the most from the fallout, end quote. Perhaps it's that last bit, aside from, you know, the whole breaking of the internet thing, that last bit is what we should watch closely for for the purposes of this show. Because for a good, I don't know, decade now, it seemed like there was nothing that could stop the inexorable rise and dominance of the major U.S. tech companies. But watch what would happen to the stock prices of, say, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple. If due to a cascading series of retaliatory bannings, those companies are suddenly shut out of Asian markets like India almost entirely. Speaking of strategic moves in a geopolitical game of chess, TikTok has

announced that it is setting up its first data center in Europe, with a $500 million investment in a facility in Ireland. The idea here is that the data of European TikTok users will now be stored in Europe, not China, to assuage concerns like the very ones we were just talking about. Quoting Bloomberg, promising to create hundreds of jobs, improve the, quote, safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data, and shorten loading times for users in Europe. The new data center is expected to be operational by early 2022. Once it goes online, European user data will be stored at that location, TikTok said. The outfit established its EMEA trust and safety hub in Dublin earlier in the year and said the new investment, quote,

signals our long-term commitment to Ireland, end quote. And TechCrunch notes this, quote, in June, TikTok also updated its regional terms of service, naming its Irish subsidiary as the local data controller alongside its UK entity, meaning European users' data. data no longer falls under its U.S. entity, TikTok Inc. This reflects distinct rules around personal data which apply across the European Union and European economic area. So while European political leaders have not been actively attacking TikTok in the same way as Trump, the company still faces increased legal risk in the region. One of the ways of avoiding this risk is to process European users' data locally. So TikTok opening a data center in Ireland may also be in response to

this in that it will offer a way for it to ensure it can comply with requirements flowing from various European rulings, end quote. From the doing well in COVID Times department, we've mentioned several times now how well gaming has been doing at this moment in time. But maybe no one in gaming is doing better than Nintendo. In their quarterly report, Nintendo reported quarterly operating profits of $1.4 billion, which is, get this, up 428% year over year. Sales of Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite consoles grew 167% year over year to 5.68 million units.

And not only that, in an era where stores are increasingly closed or people aren't going out to do their shopping, digital sales of software climbed 230% accounting for about 56% of total software sales. As you heard, the McCullough family became a Switch family during the pandemic. And these days, we are an animal crossing household first. and foremost, and apparently we are not alone in this, quoting Polygon. Animal Crossing New Horizons is undoubtedly the video game of the pandemic at first selling millions of units in the first 11 days alone, but now that it's been a few months, Nintendo has released its latest financial data, and Animal Crossing sales are staggering to consider in context when compared to other flagship

video games. Since its release in late March, New Horizons had sold 22.4 million copies, making it the second most popular Nintendo Switch game ever, right behind Mario Kart 8, which, as of this writing, sits at 26.7 million units. It hasn't even been a full year, and Animal Crossing has outsold Super Smash Brothers, the legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Pokemon's Sword, and Pokemon's Shield, and Super Mario Odyssey. Most of the aforementioned games are system sellers and have been out for at least a year or more. Prior to this year, any one of the Switch games on this list could have been considered more, mainstream than Animal Crossing, but a lot has changed in the last few months. Animal Crossing is a household name now to the degree that it seems like only a matter of time

before it becomes the Switch's best-selling game ever. That is, if Sales Momentum 4 New Horizons continues. New Horizons has also sold double what its predecessor did, Animal Crossing New Leaf, which clocks in at 12.55 million lifetime sales, end quote. The Samsung unpacked event was just yesterday, but if you believe Chris Welch over at the verge. The surprise breakout announcement from yesterday was for something that a lot of us kind of ridiculed, those galaxy buds live, those things that look like actual beans that you put in your ear. Well, Welch says maybe they're cool beans. An unconventional design for earbuds might actually turn out to be a winner, quoting from his review. The $169.99 Buds Live have a style all their own.

reflective in the bronze color, which can look more rose gold in some lighting. But I generally like the look and the fact that Samsung is experimenting. You've never worn earbuds quite like these, which means putting them in the first few times feels a bit foreign, and you might overthink it. Turns out they slot into the concha of my ears quite naturally. The bean design works, and are both comfortable and stable once there. There are no silicone tips, the speaker points directly into your ear canal, the buds live have some sort of. silicone stabilizers near the top, and there's a slightly larger set included in the box, if those help the buds better sit in your ears contours. The tap controls work just like those

on the Galaxy Buds Plus. Single tap to pause, double to skip, three to go back, and you can customize what a long press does. The Galaxy Bud's Live carrying case, which has a USBC port and wireless charging support, is wonderfully compact, though the earbuds will definitely go flying out if you drop it, since they don't have a very deep cradle. With three total beam-forming mics, two on the exterior and one inside, the Galaxy Buds Live have performed just fine during my Zoom meetings and voice calls. Samsung says they also have a voice pickup unit in the hardware for improved speech detection. You can use either bud independently while the other is charging in the case.

Taken as a whole package, the Galaxy Buds Live exceed what I came in expecting, based on the leaks, and the uncertainty I had about what the bean shape would mean for comfort and sound quality. neither wound up being a concern after actually using them. If you're okay living with a healthy dose of outside sound while listening to the Galaxy Buds Live, there's a lot to like, end quote. Remember how the Mac pros have those optional wheels that you can attach to make your rig more portable, except the wheels themselves cost a pretty penny, $699. Well, OWC is now taking pre-orders for a kit that will allow you to easily add wheels to

your Mac Pro for a third of what Apple charges, though that still means $200 for wheels. Quoting Apple Insider, The Rover Pro wheels can be installed another two minutes and require no special tools. Just screw them on to your MacPro's factory feet and tighten them by hand. When you're done moving your computer, removing the wheels can be done in a few minutes as well. If you plan on keeping the wheels on permanently and still want a bit of extra security, the Rover Pro kit includes wheel stops. The wheel stops clip to the casters to prevent movement.

perfect for tile, laminate, and hardwood floors. OWC's wheels feature 360-degree articulation, non-marking soft rubber tread and low friction bearings, and a highly polished stainless steel look to match the Mac Pro. OWC's Rover Kit is available for pre-order for $199 with the wheels shipping at some point in September, end quote. Let's end today talking about something that had never occurred to me before. wireless charging for mostly our smartphones but for all sorts of devices seems to be the wave of the future, right? You just know that one of these days Johnny Ive is going to get his dream and we're going to have a completely portless iPhone.

And yet, tests indicate that wireless charging is a bit of an efficiency disaster because it is much less efficient than cord charging. Remember that story I did recently about super fast charging technology that could only be done via wires? Well, the folks at 1-0 and I Fix It crunch the numbers on pixel 4 charging tests using wireless charging and found that wireless charging used 47% more power than cabled charging. Quoting Eric Ravenscraft at 1-0. On paper, wireless charging sounds appealing. Just drop a phone down on a charger and it will start charging. There's no wear and tear on charging ports and chargers can even be built into furniture.

Not all of the energy that comes out of a wall outlet, however, ends up in a phone battery. Some of it gets lost in the process as heat. While this is true of all forms of charging to a certain extent, wireless chargers lose a lot of energy compared to cables. They get even less efficient when the coils in the phone aren't aligned properly with the coils in the charging pad, a surprisingly common problem. To get a sense of how much extra power is lost when using wireless charging versus wired charging in the real world, I tested a pixel 4 using multiple wireless chargers as well as the standard charging cable that comes with the phone. I used a high-precision power meter, that sits between the charging block and the power outlet to measure power consumption.

In my test, I found that wireless charging used on average around 47% more power than a cable. Charging the phone from completely dead to 100% using a cable took an average of 14.26 watt hours. Using a wireless charger took on average 21.01 watt hours. That comes out to slightly more than 47% more energy for the convenience of not plugging in a cable. In other words, the phone had to work harder, generate more heat, and suck up more energy when wireless charging to fill the same battery size. On top of this, wireless chargers independently consume a small amount of power when no phone was charging at all, around 0.25 watts, which might not sound like much, but over 24 hours, it would consume around 6 watt hours. A household with multiple wireless chargers left unplugged and, say, a charger by the bed, one in the living room and another in the office, could waste the same amount of power in a day as it would take to fully charge a phone. By contrast, in my testing, the normal cable charger did not draw any measurable amount of power.

I think in terms of power consumption for me personally worrying about how much I'm paying for electricity, I don't think it's a factor. Kyle Wien's CEO of I Fixit told 100, but if all of a sudden the 3 billion plus smartphones that are in use, if all of them take 50% more power to charge, that adds up to a big amount. So it's a society-wide issue, not a personal issue, end quote. To get a frame of reference for scale, IFIXIT helped me calculate the impact that the kind of excess power drain I experience could have if every smartphone user on the planet switch to wireless charging. Not a likely scenario anytime soon, but neither was. 3.5 billion people carrying around smartphones, say, 30 years ago.

Quote, we worked out that at 100% efficiency from wall socket to battery, it would take about 73 coal power plants running for a day to charge 3.5 billion smartphone batteries once fully. I fix it, technical writer Arthur She told 1-0. But if people place their phones wrong and reduce the efficiency of their charging, the number grows. Quote, if the wireless charging efficiency was only 50%, you would need to double the 73 power plants in order to charge all the batteries, end quote.

In other words, if wireless charging is the future, far from all of the happy talk that we've gotten from Silicon Valley about going carbon neutral by 2030, this one small tech change could necessitate the building of dozens of new power plants worldwide just to account for the increased power suck. So merely to save a half a second of time and the oh so onerous inconvenience of plugging in a cable, our phones could end up sucking 50% more energy. When you're dealing with large numbers like this, billions of smartphones charging every single day, in the name of nearly imperceptible convenience, we could wreck a massive social cost. And by the way, this is a timely reminder that we've never actually gotten the science perfect on any of this. this day, almost half of the energy we produce globally is lost just in the process of getting that energy to us. Resistance, capacitance, inductance, even skin effects. There are huge

inefficiencies in our power systems that we've never been able to fix. That is all for today. If download numbers are to be believed, we've picked up several thousand new listeners over the last couple weeks. So if you are one of those new listeners, welcome. Thanks for joining the mutant podcast army. If you're enjoying what you hear, why not do something that I haven't asked for in a while? Why not write a review of the show on Apple Podcasts especially?

There are a couple of negative reviews up there right now that I'd love to bury. And also, as every podcast tells you endlessly, because it's true, ratings and reviews do help people find out about this show. So whatever program you use to listen to the show, please consider leaving us a review or rating therein. Thanks. Talk to you tomorrow.