Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 09/13 - Where in the World is Larry Page?

Episode Date: September 13, 2018

The fallout from the Apple event, Google kills another beloved product, the Nintendo Switch online service comes online, and where in the World is Larry Page? Links:The iPhone Franchise (Stratechery)Making sense of the most confusing new iPhone lineup ever (Fast Company)Inbox, Google’s playground for email innovation, is going bye-bye (Fact Company)The Nintendo Switch online service is launching on September 18th (The Verge)How Procore Built The Cloud’s Hottest Unicorn By Bringing Software To Low-Tech Construction Sites (Forbes)Where in the World Is Larry Page? (Bloomberg Businessweek) 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 Thursday, September 13th, 2018. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, the fallout from the Apple event.

Google kills another beloved product. The Nintendo Switch online service comes online. And where in the world is Larry Page? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So thanks to everyone that tweeted at me overnight, that I accidentally said the iPhone 10s max, was 10 and a half inches. Yeah, that would truly be ginormous.

By the way, that was my flub. Chris's script had it right. But in my defense, we were rushing and, you know, trying to keep all of the different model numbers straight at the same time, which leads me to not a particularly fresh hot take. Yes, everyone is grousing

about how confusing the iPhone lineup is now. And honestly, listening back right after I posted at 530 last night, Even I was like, wait, did we get this right? Do I even understand this? I think the best way to think of this situation is to imagine that your mom comes to you and is like, I need to get a new phone. Which iPhone should I get? Actually, we're probably going to have that conversation in real life soon.

So in that scenario, what do I say? I say, I guess, okay, mom, the cheapest iPhones come in colors. They have an LCD screen, which is still perfectly fine. They do lose the home button. And yeah, they're bigger than your existing phone. That's the 10R. Then I would say, but look, they all lose the home button, and actually every single phone will be larger than your existing phone.

And if you want the smallest new phone you can get, you're going to want the 10S. It actually has the same internals the cheap phone has, but a better screen and a better camera. Then if you want to go crazy, that's the 10S max, which is big, big, big, though just a hair smaller than the iPhone 7 and 8 pluses. But it will get you half a terabyte of storage, but it still has the same cameras, the same processors. See, I've already lost her at that point. I think I've actually lost myself in there somewhere.

So, do you see what I'm saying? Do you know how confusing it was, even for me to game out that scenario in my head? Why then is Apple doing this? Well, Harry McCracken and Ben Thompson have some thoughts. In an article for Sturtecary, Thompson argues that the new iPhone 10 models are all about pushing the best phone to the masses. No matter which new iPhone 10 you get, you're basically getting the best iPhone there is, plus or minus some minor details. That has long been a selling point of any new iPhone.

The mere fact that there's a new best iPhone means people will line up to buy it. Thompson also likens the iPhone to the Mission Impossible franchise, which of course was alluded to in yesterday's keynote opening VIII. video. The iPhone is tech's most valuable franchise and you can bet people are going to show up for the latest installment of the franchise, even if it's expensive or like the Mission Impossible film sometimes a little confusing. Harry McCracken, over in Fast Company, mused on the challenges Apple faces at this point in its iPhone journey. The product is mature, so there needs to be multiple paths for existing users to upgrade. That's likely why we see the spread from the comparatively low-priced iPhone 10R

all the way up to the expensive but amazing iPhone 10S Max. Apple had to do the 10R in the middle there in order to have an entry-level phone, and we all know why it exists, to be the entry-level phone that's also the best. And then there's the big phone crowd. You know there are people out there who just want the biggest iPhone,

so if Apple can keep delivering even bigger iPhones, there's a market waiting to buy them. And that brings me back to what I said yesterday. Big is in. We know that the smartphone buying public likes big phones. They see big phones as premium devices, so they're willing to pay more for them. So Apple has finally officially given up on small and medium, at least for this year. As McCracken puts it, your options this year are, quote, large, very large and very, very large, end quote.

Google is killing yet another beloved product, continuing their grand tradition of doing things like this. This time on the chopping. block is Inbox. The email app introduced in 2014 in a Google blog post by some guy named Sundar Pachai, who was then SVP for Android, Chrome, and Apps. But yesterday we learned that inbox will now sunset in March of 2019. Inbox was basically a rethink of how email should work on mobile devices and sat atop the core Gmail service. It introduced features like Smart Reply, automating simple replies to simple emails, like when your colleague asks which lunch place you'd like to go to

and list three of them, just tap the one you want, and your smart reply is ready. Inbox also tried to put the most important email up top rather than adhering strictly to the time-sorted list. It allowed you to snooze emails and bundle emails. It let you set reminders, and it helped you use your inbox as a task management system. So if that sounds familiar,

that's because over the years, features from inbox have basically made their way to the core Gmail product, making inbox a little redundant. Starting in 2017, Gmail built in the smart reply feature and last April's redesign of Gmail was heavily inspired by inbox. Reaction, though, to inbox going away is definitely mixed. Twitter user Kitsy said,

First reader, now this, I'm seriously done with Google's crap. Martin Bryant tweeted, this is sad. Inbox should have continued as Google's experimental, playful take on email versus the mainstream Gmail. At the verge, Dieter Bone wrote, Overall, it's probably good that Google is focusing on one app for email, Gmail. I'm told no employees will be laid off from the inbox team, which was already well integrated into the Gmail team, end quote.

This also got lost in all of the hubbub yesterday, but the Nintendo Switch online service is just around the corner. With a launch date set for Tuesday, September 18th, new subscribers will get a seven-day free trial. After the free trial, U.S. pricing is either $3.99 per month, $7.99 for three months, or $19.99 for a full year. If you've got a family of Switch users, you can get a $34.99 annual plan that allows up to seven family members to access the service. So what does this new service offer? Well, for one thing, it's the only way Switch users can get cloud backups of their saved games.

Without that feature, if you lose or break your switch, all your game progress is just lost. Game over, man. Beyond the backups, going forward, this service will be the only way to play certain games online, most notably Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Splatoon. But wait, there's more. Subscribers also get access to 20 classic NES games at launch, including the original Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers 3, and Dr. Mario, which will now have an online play component, despite being originally released in 1990.

We can also assume that more classic games will, come in the near future. I'm recording this episode four hours before Nintendo makes its official announcement of this service, so some details might change a bit. We'll let you know tomorrow if Nintendo has any big surprises at its event later today. From Forbes magazine, here's the story of another unicorn that you've probably never heard of, ProCore Technologies. ProCore provides technology for construction sites, and yes, there's plenty of tech now being used in the $1 trillion construction industry, although it has taken a little while for the industry to catch up. Founded by Tui Cortimanch, way back in 2002, ProCore makes the most popular software used in construction.

The app does basically anything you can imagine to support a construction project, from project management to showing progress directly to a client, you know, the person whose house you're building, to making sure all the regulations are followed and permits are filed correctly. construction projects famously have a ton of moving parts, and ProCore is there to address all of them. Cordomanche founded the business after his own construction project went off the rails. At the time, he was working in HR software. When his own home construction project was moving slowly and he couldn't visualize its progress, Cordomanche did what any self-respecting nerd would do, he wrote his own software to track it.

Then he started selling that software. Within a few years, that early ProCore software was being used by Hollywood's stars to track the progress of their own construction projects. Kortemanch bridged the gap between the construction industry, which accounts for almost 10% of the U.S. economy and the tech world. Early on, he found some pushback from the construction industry. According to Forbes at that moment, he thought, holy crap, I've been given a time machine. And he saw a giant market that he could serve, if only he could convince the industry to get

with the times. Procor was early, and actually its timing was not great. The business barely survived the financial crisis of 2008 when a booming home building market suddenly froze up almost completely. When that happened, Cordomanche zeroed out his own salary, laid off all but five employees, and mortgaged his house to keep the company running. Most founders would have quit or pivoted, but Cordamanche doubled down and refined the software waiting for the market to return. And then he had excellent timing. By 2010, when the iPad launched, it became a key tool for construction. sites and network access via Wi-Fi and cellular finally made it practical to use web-based

software on site. ProCore blossomed. In 2014, big investment rounds started flowing in with tens of millions of dollars in funding as the product grew both in functionality and market dominance. ProCore has raised 180 million in funding since 2015 and was officially valued at $1 billion in late 2016. ProCore even turned down a multi-billion dollar offered to sell. Today, sales are near $200 million. The company has 1,200 employees, and an IPO is highly likely in 2019. Casey Newton maybe has soured on tech exec profiles because he feels like they've lost their utility. Well, this one is maybe more of a reading of the tea leaves. The new cover of Bloomberg Business Week is kind of funny. It's a picture of Larry Page under a 404 error with

the title reading, Page Not Found. Get it? The piece is essentially speculating about the de facto leader of Google slash alphabet, and to what degree he is still engaged in things day to day. The piece leads off with, of course, the high-profile decision by Larry Page not to show up at Congress for those recent hearings. Though I would point out that that just seems like a clever bit of strategic jujitsu, let Facebook and Twitter soak up all the criticism. about privacy and pretend that Google is somehow a different kettle of fish above it all.

And also, as other people have pointed out online, Paige does suffer from vocal cord paralysis, which is why most of us have been assuming he's been less high profile of late, at least in terms of public speaking. But, quote, it's not just Washington. Even in Silicon Valley, people have started wondering, where's Larry? Page has long been reclusive, a computer scientist who pondered technical problems away from the public eye, preferring to chase moonshots over magazine covers. Unlike founder-CEO peers, Mark Zuckerberg comes to mind, he hasn't presented at product launches or on earnings calls since 2013,

and he hasn't done press since 2015. He leaves day-to-day decisions to Pichai and a handful of others, but a slew of interviews in recent months with colleagues and confidants, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were worried about retribution from Alphabet, described Page as an executive who's more withdrawn than ever, bordering on emeritus, invisible to wide swaths of the company. Supporters contend he's still engaged, but his immersion in the technology solutions of tomorrow has distracted him from the problems Google faces today. What I didn't see in the last year was a strong central voice about how Google's going to operate on these issues that are societal and less technical, says a longtime executive who recently left the company, end quote. The piece does say that Page still oversees each Alphabet subsidiary,

and he does still show up to those famous TGIF All Hands meetings from time to time. But it also claims that Page's workload is a far cry from the 80-hour weeks he was pulling back when he took the CEO job back from Eric Schmidt in 2011. And as has long been rumored, the piece suggests that Page just gets more juice out of the so-called moonshot projects at Alphabet. He's never enjoyed the day-to-day of running a business, at least in terms of the nitty-gritty. One interesting detail in the piece that I'd never heard before for a time, Page was apparently obsessed with a sort of hyperloop, but for bikes. Larry has always been obsessed with that sort of thing.

He wanted to replace the bus system in Ann Arbor with some sort of autonomous system back when he was at the University of Michigan. It is a bit of a long read, and I don't have a take on this myself, but Google is entering a sort of crossroads period right now, 20 years old, antitrust issues swirling. Not having a recognizable face of the company could present some sort of strategic direction issues. Although, as the piece says, quote, it's a weird moment for founder's CEOs. And compared with Elon Musk smoking a blunt on a live video podcast, pages invisibility might seem preferable. FYI, guys, if you love listening to podcasts on smart speakers, I tested out a Google Home smart speaker this past weekend, and if you've got one of those, this podcast is on there. Just say, hey, Google, play the TechMeme Right Home podcast.

Use it right up. Not sure if you get that fancy picks up on your phone where you left off feature, but at least I know the podcast is there. We're on Alexa 2, of course, but only through Tune-in, Stitcher or I-Heart Ration. I could theoretically do an Alexa skill where you could replace your flash briefing with the TechMeme Right Home. Let me know if you want me to look into that. If no one's interested, no biggie. But by the way, there's apparently an Alexa skill called AnyPod that also makes podcast listening easier on Alexa. I don't know why Amazon is making that so difficult.

Oh, and for the handful of listeners who have one, we're also on Apple's HomePod. Just ask Siri to play the podcast TechMeme Ride Home. Siri pronounces it Tetched meme but does queue up the latest episode Anyway, the tech meme ride home was produced

by myself and written by myself and Chris Higgins again today. Talk to you tomorrow.