Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/14 – LinkedIn Shuts Down In China

Starting point is 00:00:03 Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Thursday, October 14th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Microsoft is shutting down LinkedIn in China. The first major tech regulation bill of this wave is set to debut in the Senate today. TCL's cheap smartphones sound pretty good, actually. The gaming industry is serious about combating cheating. Instacart might be on strike this weekend, and GitLab celebrates its IPO. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Microsoft said this morning that it is shutting down. its Chinese version of LinkedIn and replacing it with a just run-of-the-mill job board. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that back in March, the Chinese government told LinkedIn to regulate better the content on its sort of news feed product, quoting the journal. This marks the end of the last major American social media network operating openly in China. LinkedIn in a statement Thursday said that it made the decision after, quote, facing a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China, end quote. In March, China's internet regulator told LinkedIn officials to better regulate its

Starting point is 00:01:11 content and gave them 30 days to do so, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent months, LinkedIn notified several China-focused human rights activists, academics, and journalists that their profiles were being blocked in China, saying they contained prohibited content. LinkedIn said it would replace its Chinese service, which restricts some content to comply with local government, demands already, with a job board service lacking social media features, such as the ability to share opinions and news stories, end quote. There is a bipartisan Senate bill set to be unveiled today at some point that would ban internet platforms from favoring their own products or services, a practice known as self-preferencing, quoting the journal. In particular, the bill would

Starting point is 00:02:02 prohibit a range of practices that are harmful to businesses and consumers, such as requiring a business to by a dominant platform's goods or services in exchange for preferred placement, misusing a business's data in order to compete against it, biasing search results in favor of the dominant firm, and unfairly preventing other business products from interoperating with the dominant platform. The House Judiciary Committee passed a similar bill earlier this year, although in some respects the Senate bill would be somewhat tougher. The bill could affect many of the major tech firms, including searches provided to users by Amazon and Alphabet's Google. both of which provide numerous products and services that compete with other businesses.

Starting point is 00:02:41 The companies and their supporters generally contend that they operate in highly competitive and dynamic markets and don't use their market power unfairly to block competition. They have also argued against far-reaching antitrust bills in the House by contending that they could upend their businesses in ways that consumers wouldn't like. Broad changes could also undermine the U.S.'s tech leadership in the world, they contend, end quote. In the Twitter space we did last night, Chris and I ended up talking a lot about Facebook, not the recent scandals per se, but where Facebook as a business can go now. Zuck, as we've said, and you might notice, is talking all about the metaverse these days,

Starting point is 00:03:24 but also remember their crypto project and also those AR glasses. Well, more details on what Facebook might be thinking about strategically. Facebook has detailed what they call Ego4D, an AI research project done in partnership with 13 universities to improve egocentric perception with potential to improve AI assistance, quoting the verge. A new research project led by Facebook's AI team suggests the scope of the company's ambitions. It imagines AI systems that are constantly analyzing people's lives using first-person video, recording what they see, do, and hear in order to help them with everyday tasks. Facebook's researchers have outlined a series of skills it wants these systems to develop,

Starting point is 00:04:07 including episodic memory, i.e. answering questions like, where did I leave my keys, and audiovisual diarization, remembering who said what, when. Right now, the tasks outlined cannot be achieved reliably by any AI system, and Facebook stresses that this is a research project rather than a commercial development. However, it's clear that the company sees functionality like these as the future of AR computing. Quote, definitely thinking about augmented reality and what we'd like to be able to do with it, there's possibilities down the road that we'd be leveraging with this kind of research, Facebook AI research scientist, Kristen Grauman, told The Verge. Such ambitions have huge privacy implications.

Starting point is 00:04:47 Privacy experts are already worried about how Facebook's AR glasses allow wearers to covertly record members of the public. Such concerns will only be exacerbated if future versions of the hardware not only record footage but analyze and transcribe it, turning wearers into walking surveillance machines. The name of Facebook's research project is Ego4D, which refers to the analysis of first-person or egocentric video. It consists of two major components, an open data set of egocentric video, and a series of benchmarks that Facebook thinks AI systems should be able to tackle in the future. The data set that the researchers have already collected is the biggest

Starting point is 00:05:24 of its kind ever created, and Facebook partnered with 13 universities around the world to collect the data. In total, some 3,205 hours of footage were recorded by 855 participants living in nine different countries. The universities rather than Facebook were responsible for collecting the data. Participants, some of whom were paid, wore GoPro cameras and AR glasses to record video of unscripted activity. This ranges from construction work to banking, to playing with pets and socializing with friends. All footage was de-identified by the universities, which included blurring the faces of bystanders and removing any personally identifiable information. Grumman says, the dataset is the, quote, first of its kind in both scale and diversity, end quote.

Starting point is 00:06:05 The nearest comparable project, she says, contains 100 hours of first-person footage shot entirely in kitchens. We've opened up the eyes of these AI systems to more than just kitchens in the UK and Sicily, but to footage from Saudi Arabia, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Colombia, end quote. The second component of Ego4D is a series of benchmarks or tasks that Facebook wants researchers around the world to try and solve using AI systems trained on its data set. The company describes these as episodic memory, or what happens. and when, e.g., where did I leave my keys? Also, forecasting. What am I likely to do next? E.G., wait, you've already added salt to this recipe. Also, hand and object manipulation, what am I doing, e.g., teach me how to play the drums. Audiovisual diarization, who said what when, e.g., what was

Starting point is 00:06:54 the main topic during class? And social interaction. Who is interacting with whom? I.e., help me better hear the person talking to me in this noisy restaurant. Right now, AI systems would find tackling any of these problems incredibly difficult, but creating datasets and benchmarks are tried and tested methods to spur development in the field of AI, end quote. Heads up if you're looking to put in an Instacart order this weekend, you might not be able to. Apparently up to 70% of Instacart couriers in the U.S. and Canada could walk off the job this weekend. Protesting and demanding changes to the platform, including at least a 10% default tip, new commissions, and pay-by-order. Quoting the Toronto Star.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Daniel Furr, a Durham, Ontario entrepreneur who has worked for Instacart since last May, said these issues are important for the app's workers because he notices pay shrink dramatically throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, despite his hours not changing. Instacart workers, who are called shoppers, receive a travel payment, tips and another sum based on fees paid by customers, he said. In May and June, I started noticing this downward trend with my income dropping and I couldn't really figure out why, Furr said. He keeps meticulous spreadsheets to track his wages and notice his earnings had been halved, but his hours were roughly the same. By the end of June and July, it became really apparent that Instacart was

Starting point is 00:08:20 reducing one of the three elements that determined how we get paid, he said. He found Instacart paid him about $7 for a 42-it-it-it-batch, a series of orders from multiple customers clumped together that he filled in September at Real Canadian Superstore. The batch took about 75 minutes to complete. In May or prior, he said that same kind of order would have paid $15 or $20. It's disgusting. And the only thing that makes these batches worthwhile and able for a lot of people to make a living is the tips that customers provide, he said. Instacart maintains that it has not changed its pay structure since February 2019 and said it takes feedback from workers, including members of the gig workers collective very seriously, end quote.

Starting point is 00:09:07 We know TCL for their smart TVs, but did we know that they got into the smartphone business as well? I actually think I do remember learning that from CES or something. One of the CESs is anyway, but anyway, the Verge says that TCL's latest budget phones, the 20s and the 20S are pretty interesting because they do so much at a real cheap price point. Quote, if the TCL 20S and 20 SE phones were on the prices right, you would probably guess much higher prices than the retail ones. With the 20s retailing for $250 and the 20 SE going for $190, these sub-300 4G phones are the real deal.

Starting point is 00:09:50 They check all the boxes for what you'd want in a smartphone. They have big and bright screens, large 5,000-mph-hour batteries, 128 gigabytes of internal storage, and good enough cameras. You even get a free, clear silicone case inside each box. Unlike the fancier TCL 20S Pro, neither the 20S nor the 20SC has the latest and greatest processor, nor do they support 5G networking. Those aren't unsurprising omissions at this price point. But given TCL's history, it's no wonder the real stars of the TCL 20s and 20SC are the brilliant displays, though they each use different panels. Both phones look and feel more luxurious than they are because of their solid build quality, as well as attention to the

Starting point is 00:10:33 details users really actually care about. Long-lasting battery life, strong performance, ample storage, as well as ingenious design, who says good things can't come in budget-friendly packages. The $19020 SE has a 6.82-inch display, which at 720 pixels wide is too low resolution for a screen this large, 720 by 1640 pixels and an aspect ratio of 20.5 to 9. I tried watching the 4K Dune trailer on YouTube and it looked too dim and fuzzy at 720P for me to enjoy the video. Nevertheless, this display offers vibrant colors even at 50% brightness. Whether or not you turn on the NXT Vision display optimization software, I did not see much difference either way. The higher-priced 20S has a brighter yet slightly smaller 6.67-inch screen with a high-resolution FHD plus LCD display

Starting point is 00:11:27 than the 20SE, which this one has 1080 by 2,400 pixels with a 20-9 aspect ratio. When I watched the same Dune trailer at 1080P on the 20S, I could actually see sharper lines and more details this time around. Both displays look bright enough outdoors that I can read text if I boost the screen up to 100% brightness. I also appreciate how unobtrusive the pinhole front camera is on the 20S compared to the 20SE's teardrop design, the latter of which actually cuts into the top of the display. I can't really think of a higher quality budget phone in the $250 range that can beat the TCL 20S. It's got all the hallmarks of a more expensive device, but with a more affordable price tag. Its vibrant 6.67 inch 1080p display doesn't look

Starting point is 00:12:11 out of place next to other flagship phones, and it feels luxurious with that fingerprint-proofed layer of micron-sized prismatic crystals on its back cover. If you're looking for an unlocked phone that is compatible with Verizon and most 4G GSM networks like AT&T and T-NT Mobile, I don't think you can go wrong with this unlocked TCL20S. If your budget is strictly sub-200 and won't be using Verizon as your carrier, then the TCL20SE is also a smart choice, end quote. We've spoken before about this, but I can't believe how serious an issue cheating has become in gaming. I mean, I do believe it. I get how seriously people take these games, especially when you're playing online. And now, the companies are having to take it seriously, too, in order to keep that golden goose of online play going.

Starting point is 00:13:04 Activision has announced the Rurccee anti-cheeting system for Call of Duty Warzone, which uses a PC kernel-level driver and machine learning to examine player behavior and root out cheats. Quoting The Verge. PC games are increasingly using kernel-level driver. to detect sophisticated cheating. But since they run at such a high level in Windows, there are always privacy concerns surrounding such an approach. The ricochet anti-cheet system and Call of Duty will not always be on, according to Activision. That means the kernel level driver only operates when you open up Call of Duty Warzone

Starting point is 00:13:38 and the driver will shut down when you exit. The driver itself will monitor processes interacting with Warzone to see if they're trying to inject code or manipulate the game and report the results back. Activision says it has tested the driver across a large range of PCs and it will be required to play Call of Duty Warzone when the Pacific Map update launches later this year. The Colonel Level driver will eventually arrive in Call of Duty Vanguard at a later date. Call of Duty players will welcome this new anti-cheat effort even if there will be inevitable questions and concerns over a Colonel Level driver. It comes just a day after the main Call of Duty Twitter account issued a stern warning to cheaters. Cheaters aren't welcome, they said.

Starting point is 00:14:17 there's no tolerance for cheaters and soon you'll know what we mean, end quote. While Activision has been banning thousands of accounts, cheaters have still been ruining Call of Duty Warzone for months. Prominent Warzone players have become highly vocal about the problem, forcing Raven Software to communicate more frequently about the cheating issues and promise a full anti-cheat system in August. Call of Duty Warzone isn't the only PC game affected by cheaters, though. Cheating in some of the world's top PC games has been getting worse over the past year

Starting point is 00:14:46 as aimbots and wallhacks are now common in the industry's most competitive shooters. Aimbots automatically lock onto opponents, making it easy to hit headshots, and wallhacks expose everyone on a map so cheaters get a huge advantage by knowing where their opponents are at all times, end quote. Finally today, just to note that GitLab is going public, raising $801 million after pricing its IPO at $77 per share, which is above its $66 to $69 a share range. thereby giving the company a market valuation of around $11 billion. The usual suspects were investors in the company overtime, GV, iconic, Kosovo Ventures, but also Joe Montana, quoting CNBC.

Starting point is 00:15:35 Joe Montana won his first Super Bowl as an NFL quarterback in 1982. Almost four decades later, he's about to get his first IPO as a venture capitalist. Montana, who led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl victories and was inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame in 2000, has spent the past six years investing in startups through his firm Liquid Two Ventures. He started with a $28 million fund and is now closing his third fund that's almost three times bigger. One of Liquid Two's first investments was announced in July 2015 when a code repository called GitLab raised a $1.5 million seed round after going through the Y Combinator Incubator program.

Starting point is 00:16:14 GitLab's valuation at the time was around $12 million, and other participants in the financing round included Kostla Ventures and Ashton Kucher. On Thursday, GitLab is set to debut on the NASDAQ with a market cap of almost $10 billion based on a $69 share price at the high end of its range. Montana's initial $100,000 investment, along with some follow-on funding, is worth about $42 million at that price. We're all pretty pumped, Montana, 65 said in an interview this week, while vacation. in Italy, quote, this is going to be a monster for us, end quote. Thanks to all of you who offered suggestions for my little iPhone video problem. I still haven't managed to resolve the issue yet. No, I'm not using a VPN. In fact, I first noticed the problem out in Prospect Park, outside without any access to Wi-Fi. No, the new Apple VPN thing isn't on, at least that I can

Starting point is 00:17:16 determine. Yes, I've reset network settings. Yes, I've logged out of, say, the Netflix app and logged back in. Yes, I've deleted, say, the Netflix app and logged back in. My TCL Roku TV set is still logged into Netflix and all the other apps and it's on the same Wi-Fi and it all works just fine. It's definitely something that has happened to just my phone. My wife's iPhone still plays video perfectly fine. So I guess we're down to what? Doing a factory reset, something that I was hoping to avoid if for no other reason then I just did that like a week ago when I got this new phone. I don't like that three hours where I'm without a phone while it redownloads everything. Except also if I do do that, but then reinstall based on my

Starting point is 00:18:01 ICloud backup, could I just be back here at Square One having the exact same problem? Any advice? Before I pull the trigger on that, welcome. And thanks again for trying, but we're still stuck without my ability to watch the final two squid game episodes on my phone. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/14 – LinkedIn Shuts Down In China

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