Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/08 – AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs Announced

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, October 8th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. A bunch of new chip announcements from AMD. Facebook is pausing all political ads after the election.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Square puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to Bitcoin. Triller is an interesting TikTok competitor. And what is it with photo startups always wanting to go all nostalgic and analog? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. The busy days for chip news continue apace. AMD has announced the Zen 3 Risen 5,000 CPUs for desktops, the first chips from AMD using its next-gen

Starting point is 00:01:15 Zen 3 architecture. Quoting the verge, AMD is setting expectations high, promising that the new Risen 5900X is nothing short of, quote, the world's best gaming CPU. The new chips will be available starting at $299 for the entry-level Risen 5500X model on November 5th. Like last year's ZEN 2-based Risen 3,000 desktop chips, these new models replace.

Starting point is 00:01:41 The new 5,000 series processors are still using AMD's 7-nanometer process, but offer a 19% increase in instructions per cycle, along with a complete redesign of the chip layout and a higher max boost speed. The new chips sets are jumping straight to the Risen 5,000 series branding to avoid any confusion with the new ZEN 3 chips with the ZEN2-based Risen 4,000. in desktop chips that AMD released over the summer for pre-built systems. Altogether, AMD says that simply replacing a Zen 2 CPU with a comparable Zen 3 model, the new chips are compatible with older motherboards after a firmware update,

Starting point is 00:02:15 will result in an average 26% improvement for customers, all while keeping TDP and core counts the same. AMD is starting with four new Zen 3 CPUs. There's a top-of-the-line, Risen 9-5950X model with 16 cores, 32 threads, and a max boost speed of 4.9 gigahertz for $799.99. The $549,000, with 12 cores, 32 threads, and a max boost speed of 4.8 gigahertz. The 499 Ryzen 7, 5800X with 8 cores, 16 threads and a max boost speed of 4.7 gigahertz, and the $299,000, Risen 5, 5,600X with 6 cores, 12 threads, and a max boost speed of 4.4.

Starting point is 00:03:01 gigahertz. Notably, each of those chips has gotten a $50 price increase compared to the original prices from the comparable Zen 2 CPUs from 2019. All four new CPUs will be available starting on November 5th, end quote. Facebook says it will temporarily suspend all political advertising for an indefinite period of time after U.S. polls close on November 3rd, and they will remove any calls for poll watching that use what it is terming militarized language, quoting the Washington Post. Executive said the policy applies to anyone, including President Trump and other officials. Trump has made calls for people to engage in poll watching, including at the presidential debate and son Donald Trump Jr., appeared in an ad last month, urging people to, quote, defend your ballot and join a, quote, army to protect the polls. Facebook executive said such language, including the words army and battle, would be prohibited in the future, but the ad will not.

Starting point is 00:04:00 be removed retroactively. The company has planned or considered scenarios for how the election could play out, including if Trump or other politicians use their megaphones to dispute the results of the election. Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleiker said in an interview, at least 70 possibilities have been considered. To combat those possibilities, the company has said it will send out notifications on election night on Facebook and Instagram to share the latest results in partnership with Reuters. If a presidential candidate or party declares victory premature, the company will apply labels to posts saying that the count is ongoing or will label the post with the name of the winner. Facebook did not say how long it would continue to suspend ads, but in an

Starting point is 00:04:40 internal memo to its sales staff that was obtained by the Washington Post, executives instructed staff to tell advertisers that the band would last a week, end quote. General reaction to this move was positive, though people also seemed uniform in wondering, is this just more window dressing, closing the barn door after the horses have escaped sort of thing. Quoth Charlie Worsell on Twitter, I don't know, I'd feel super weird if I built a thing and the only time people agree we made positive contributions to society was when we disabled parts of that thing, end quote.

Starting point is 00:05:14 And Jeff Kanata said, quote, This is why I'll also be banning all knives from my house the very second after I die from a thousand cuts, end quote. Google has announced a new suite of security features across all sorts of platforms, including cross-app alerts for security issues, all coming first, interestingly, to iOS. Also, they've finally added a guess mode for Google Assistant on some next devices, quoting the verge. The idea is that you'll be notified when Google detects a potentially serious security issue with your account, no matter what Google app you're using

Starting point is 00:05:55 at the time. The alerts are rolling out on a limited basis in the coming weeks, but they'll only be on iOS at first, Google tells the Verge. verge. The company plans to expand them more broadly early next year, according to a blog post. The company is also adding a guest mode to Google Assistant, which won't save any requests to your Google account while it's on. Once it's rolled out, you'll be able to turn it on by saying, once it's rolled out, you'll be able to turn it on by saying, hey, you know what, turn on guest mode. The new mode is rolling out in the coming weeks to nest smart speakers and displays. Google tells the verge, end quote. Square has purchased 50.

Starting point is 00:06:36 million dollars worth of Bitcoin becoming only the second publicly listed company after Microstrategy to invest in the cryptocurrency. Quoting the block, Square, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's payments company, has purchased around 4,709 Bitcoin at an aggregate purchase price of $50 million, i.e. at an average price of around $10,600 per Bitcoin. Announcing the news on Thursday, Square said cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment and provides a way to participate in a global monetary system, which aligns with the company's purpose, end quote. The investment represents approximately 1% of Square's total assets as of Q220. Micro Strategy has purchased a total of 38,250 Bitcoins to date, currently worth $410 million

Starting point is 00:07:24 as part of its capital allocation strategy. CEO Michael Saylor told the block in an interview last month that Bitcoin is, quote, the best money ever created, end quote. Quick Air Airbnb update from the information, which has been on top of the whole Airbnb saga in this year of COVID from the very beginning. The information has gotten their hands on some documents that show that Airbnb burned $1.2 billion between mid-2019 and mid-2020. You might remember that Airbnb had ramped up their marketing spend in anticipation of an IPO, which would probably have happened this past spring or summer, if not for the pandemic. but then the pandemic came, and then the biggest portion of that cash burn came in Q1 of this year as Airbnb rushed to issue refunds. Quoting the information, the cash drain wiped away more than a third of what the company had on hand

Starting point is 00:08:22 as of March 2019, financial documents seen by the information show. The biggest portion of the cash burn came in the first quarter of this year when the company had to dole out travel refunds as COVID-19 broke out, underscoring how the pandemic depleted Airbnb's reserves. The documents provide the fullest picture to date of Airbnb's financial situation ahead of its initial public offering plan for later this fall. The company does still have a significant cash pile. That's partly because the travel giant borrowed nearly $2 billion in April at high interest rates amid escalating losses. Thanks to the debt, Airbnb ended June with $4.1 billion in cash, cash equivalence, and marketable securities. The pandemic has pummeled Airbnb and other

Starting point is 00:09:01 travel businesses, and for a time it put Airbnb's long brewing plans to go public into doubt. Airbnb's revenue tumbled 72% in the second quarter compared with the year earlier period to $335 million. But the public debut is now back on track. Airbnb executives have suggested that a rebound in close-to-home travel has bolstered the company's outlook. Before the pandemic, the company had been planning ongoing public via a direct listing in which it would list existing shares on the stock market, but wouldn't sell new shares to raise cash. Airbnb instead is pursuing an IPO looking to raise $3 billion, Reuters reported last week, which would imply a valuation of around $30 billion. The company is expected to use that money in part to pay off the debt, according to

Starting point is 00:09:45 investors and analysts. Airbnb declined to comment, end quote. So it's been a whole week and no word on that TikTok saga, which, thank goodness right, I'm sort of sick of the whole thing myself. But remember, in the background, there are a bunch of companies, not the least of which is Facebook, that are kind of sort of crossing their fingers and hoping for a TikTok ban, because they hope to then swoop in and grab TikTok's audience. Let me introduce you to one of them. Triller, one of TikTok's competitors that believes its biggest asset is the fact that it is American-owned. Oh, and they are apparently also pursuing a strategy of tempting TikTok stars to jump short.

Starting point is 00:10:33 ship to Triller by dangling cash, fancy cars, and creator mansions in front of them. Quoting the New York Times. To attract users, the company set its sites on TikTok's biggest names. Some of the sway boys, a group of TikTok influencers, had been toying with the idea of building their own app to compete with TikTok. But after a discussion with Ryan Kavanaugh, the majority owner of Triller and a veteran entertainment executive, they decided the platform would be good for them. Triller offered the creators a deal.

Starting point is 00:10:59 Tell your audience on TikTok that you're moving to Triller and will give you equity and roles within the company. You can still post on TikTok, they were told, but only if you post on Triller more frequently. In turn, one of the sway boys, Josh Richards, 18, was named Triller's chief strategy officer and Griffin Johnson, 21, and Noah Beck, 19, joined as advisors with equity. Soon, CNBC, Fox News, and the Los Angeles Times were writing about TikTok defectors bound for Triller, an app they described as a viable replacement for TikTok should a ban be put in place. In August, Triller announced it was seeking a new funding round of 250, million, hiking its valuation to over $1 billion. Founded in 2015, Triller bills itself as an app for

Starting point is 00:11:39 making professional-looking music videos quickly. Functionally, it's different from TikTok. It has different editing tools, its users can't duet or react to videos. And while it offers top singles and hit songs, it lacks the extensive library of sounds and mashups that TikTok users employ to express themselves. I think there's a lot of things on Triller that TikTok doesn't have and vice versa. They both have their perks, said Mr. Beck of the Sway Boys. Triller, for instance, has Star Power. The company has raised money from entertainment executives and celebrities including Snoop Dog, 21 Savage and Migos, and brought on a roster of high-profile users among them, The Weekend, Marshmallow, Lewane, Young Thug, Kendrick Lamar, Teaga, Ti, and

Starting point is 00:12:20 Jake Paul. The most important thing about Triller, some of its backers say, is that it's an American company. To bring artists on, Triller has been pulling out all the stops. Triller money has become a reoccurring joke among TikTokers in Los Angeles, the punchline being that the company will do whatever it takes to partner with the right stars, end quote. Charlie Demalio, TikTok's most followed star with 90 million followers, I think we've spoken of her before, maybe on the weekend long read suggestions a few months ago. Demelio joined Triller in September and got a black Rolls Royce out of it. And also, at least based on the pictures in the story, it looks like if Triller leases a creator mansion for you, the only rules seem to be that you're not allowed to wear a shirt ever.

Starting point is 00:13:05 Nice work if you can get it. As at Garia M. Ray snarked on Twitter, quote, this is the end game of capitalism. This is really all that's left. In 10 years, we'll all either be TikTok stars or DoorDash drivers, end quote. Finally today, I feel like we see startups like this every few years, especially with photo apps. Wasn't there an app once where you could never even see the photo you took until it was printed and mailed to you or someone else. Haven't there been Polaroid aping photo apps? Actually, I guess in a way, that's what Instagram was at the very beginning, a Polaroid aping app.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Well, call this Tweed Tech or MumbleCore Tech or something like that. Dispo is another one of these camera apps that at least wants to pretend to be analog. Dispo makes users wait until the next morning to fully, quote, develop the photos they take. Apparently Alexis O'Hanian sees something on all this because his new fund 776 has led a $4 million seed round in Dispo. It's actually the very first investment that his new fund has made. The app was created by influencer David Dobrick and his friend Natalie Mardouena, quoting the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Dobrick and Dispo CEO Daniel Lease say the app offers users what other social media platforms haven't. Authentic Real Life Moments captured without edit.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Dispo users snap a picture and wait until nine the next morning for the photo to, quote, fully develop and can order prints directly from the app to their home. With disposable photos, you're not sitting there and making sure you get the right photo, Mr. Doberk said. He said the idea came from his friends using real disposable cameras during parties. They enjoyed the process of waiting to reveal what photos they took together, he said. In contrast, other social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have leaned on the use of filters and animations.

Starting point is 00:15:00 Launched in December 2019, Dispo has had 2.6 million downloads from the Apple App Store, the company says, end quote. Hey, can you all run an experiment for me real quick? I was talking to someone who has listened to the show for years yesterday, but it turned out they had never subscribed to the podcast. I never quite got the explanation for how he ended up listening to the show. I guess he just manually downloaded it every day or something. But I was like, dude, if you just subscribe, you'll get all the new episodes

Starting point is 00:15:32 automatically. So I think I talked him into it, and then that got me thinking, are there any others of you out there who listen to the show regularly but haven't actually mashed that subscribe button in whatever app it is you're listening to me now? If so, could you do that? Because I want to run a test. We've always assumed that new subscribers count the most in terms of the rankings on podcast charts. But usually when we climb the charts, it's because we've gotten a ton of new listeners anyway, so one assumes that we got new subscribers along with that. We've never been able to separate out new subscribers as a control group.

Starting point is 00:16:11 But it occurred to me that if there are a ton of you who are regular listeners, but are not actual subscribers, open up whatever app you're listening on and find that subscribe button. Or I think in Spotify you mash the follow button. If a bunch of you just subscribe today or whatever, don't unsubscribe and subscribe. I'm saying, if you've never subscribed, do it now for the first time, because I don't expect any wave of new listeners this week.

Starting point is 00:16:36 So if I keep an eye on the charts over the next 72 hours and we jump up on the charts, then I'll finally be able to isolate and quantify the power of new subscriptions in podcast ratings. Again, if you're already a subscriber, great, don't do anything. It's about testing the power of new subscribers as a ranking factor in podcast charts. So if you've never subscribed, give that a try, and I'll report back. in terms of what we find. Thanks in advance. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/08 – AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs Announced

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