Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 12/26 - "Peace. Out." - Travis Kalanick

Episode Date: December 26, 2019

Travis Kalanick has cut all ties with Uber, Sling does indeed have streaming pricing power, livestreams are the new telethons, YouTube considered doing the right thing but passed, and is Catalyst fundamentally flawed? Sponsors: Mealime GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: Travis Kalanick severs all ties with Uber, departing board and selling all his shares (CNBC) Sling TV gets more expensive, raises cheapest subscription price to $30 (The Verge) Pyka and its autonomous, electric crop-spraying drone land $11M seed round (TechCrunch) Pentagon tells military personnel not to use at-home DNA kits (NBC News) Livestreams are the new telethons, and they’re raising millions for charities (Washington Post) Inside YouTube’s Year of Responsibility (Bloomberg) Catalyst and Cohesion (WormsandViruses.com) Catalyst, Two Months In (Daring Fireball) 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, December 26th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Travis Kalanick has cut all ties with Uber. Sling does indeed have streaming pricing power. Live streams are the new telethons. YouTube considered doing the right thing but passed and is

catalyst fundamentally flawed. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. I guess I am not above saying, I told you so, but Travis Kalinick has indeed severed. all ties with Uber, stepping down from the company's board of directors effective December 31st, and he has apparently sold all of his shares in the company. Now, there is one thing that I didn't note when we talked about this before that should be noted. Kalanick is not exactly riding off into the sunset or just putting all of his billions into an S&P index fund and calling it a day, quoting CNBC.

In a statement Tuesday, Uber said Kalanick 43 is leaving to, quote, focus on his new business and philanthropic endeavors, end quote. Kalinick is launching his latest venture, Cloud Kitchens, which rents out space to restaurants for delivery-based businesses. Uber did not say who will fill Kalinick's board seat. An Uber spokesperson said the ride-haling company has, quote, strong director candidates to put forward at the appropriate time, end quote. Later, a spokesperson for Kalinik confirmed to CNBC that he has sold his entire stake in Uber,

unquote. Quoting Shira Oviday, I'll give Uber and Kalanick credit for stage managing his exit gracefully. I suspect it was far messier than it looks from the outside, end quote. If you'll recall, we spoke about pricing power in the streaming space recently. Well, DISH has increased the price of both of its sling TV packages, orange and blue, ranging from a $5 a month increase to a $30 a month increase. In addition, all users are now getting 10 hours of cloud-based DVR storage and additional channels, quoting the verge. Subscribing to both bundles of channels now cost $45, which is a few bucks shy of competitors like YouTube TV, which is $49.99 a month. That's a $5 increase all around. Sling TV notes that this is the first time Sling Blue customers have seen a price increase. The price of Sling Orange has remained stable since June 2018. But it's fitting that this news comes as the year draws to a close as it continues the upward trend of subscription costs for these cable replacement services in 2019. Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, and AT&T TV now all saw significant

price hikes in 2019. Like those rivals, Sling is blaming the networks and rising programming costs. Quote, Sling doesn't own the networks you watch. We have to pay programmers. for their channels so that we can provide them to you and the price of programming has been going up. Unfortunately, we have to share those rising prices with you so we can continue to provide you with the same great experience you've come to expect from Sling. Sling TV president Warren Schlitz-Ting explained in a blog post, end quote. Which should be noted is exactly the excuse that the cable companies used to trot out to explain price creep on traditional cable TV packages.

So, as we've said when it comes to course, cutting and streaming endlessly before. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Let's do a quick, interesting raise Thursday. PICA is a startup developing autonomous electric crop spraying drones, and PICA has just raised an $11 million seed round with participation from Y Combinator and Greycroft, among others. Crop spraying is actually a risky proposition for human piloted craft. since the craft has to execute tight, repetitive maneuvers, low to the ground, in order to achieve optimum crop coverage, quoting TechCrunch. PICA's approach is unlike that of many in the drone industry, which has tended to use multi-rotor craft for their maneuverability and easy takeoff and landing.

But those drones can't carry the weight and volume of pesticides and other chemicals that, unfortunately, need to be deployed at large scales. The craft PICA has built is more traditional, resembling a traditional one-seater crop-dusting plane, but lacking the cockpit. It's driven by a trio of propellers, and most of the interior is given over to payload. It can carry about 450 pounds and batteries. Of course, there is also a sensing suite and onboard computer to handle the immediate demands of automated flight. PICA can take off or land on a 150-foot stretch of flatland, so you don't have to worry about setting up a runway or wasting energy getting to the target area. Of course, it'll eventually need to swap out batteries, which is part of the ground crew's responsibilities. They'll also be

designing the overall course for the craft, though the actual flight path and moment-to-moment decisions are handled by the flight computer. All this means, the plane, apparently called the egret can spray about 100 acres per hour, about the same as a helicopter. But the autonomous craft provides improved precision, it flies lower, and safety. No human pulling difficult maneuvers every minute or two. Perhaps more importantly, the feds don't mind it. PICA claims to be the only company in the world with a commercially approved large autonomous electric craft. Small ones like drones have been approved left and right, but the egret is approaching the size of a traditional small aircraft like a Piper Cub, end quote.

Did you happen to get a loved one one of those home DNA kits for the holidays this year? Apparently, those kits have become very popular in terms of gifts to give for holidays or birthdays, but a whip around social media and a Google search or two will serve up plenty of people telling you that these are actually unkind gifts to give because they encourage your loved ones to essentially give away the most personal data that exists. And in fact, add the Pentagon to this list of skeptics as the U.S. military has told military personnel not to use at-home DNA kits, quoting NBC News. In a December 20th memo obtained by NBC News, under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan, and James Stewart, acting under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, said that DNA testing companies were targeting military members with discounts and other undisclosed incentives.

Quote, tests that provide health information have varying levels of validity, and many are not reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration before they are offered, the memo said. The tests might be sold without independent confirmation of their claims, the official said, a fact that poses more risk to military members than regular consumers. Inaccuracies could negatively affect the required disclosure of those members' medical information, the memo said. Quote, moreover, there is increased concern in the scientific community that outside parties are exploiting the use of genetic materials. for questionable purposes, including mass surveillance and the ability to track individuals without their authorization or awareness, the memo said. The officials told military personnel to refrain from using the kits until otherwise notified, end quote. Speaking of the holiday season, the Washington Post has an interesting new proposition. To what degree are live streams on places

like YouTube and Twitch, the new holiday telethons? Apparently, you could have logged into any number of streaming telethons yesterday and probably still can all this week because apparently they're Legion and they're raising millions for charity, quoting the post. The rise of video game streaming in the last several years has opened up a new avenue for philanthropy. Streamers and charity organizations routinely partner up to solicit donations from the gamers' thousands of loyal viewers. Instead of calling in, like participants did for telethons, viewers funnel donations through a digital pipeline that makes the fundraising process instantaneous. Streamers hold auctions, hand out prices, and incentivize viewers to donate with

different reward tiers. The streams often involve the host playing video games for hours on end. Digital telethons have become so popular that the community around Twitch, the world's leading live stream platform, collectively raised more than $75 million for varying charities between 2012 and 2017, according to the company. Events like the video game Speed Running Marathon series Games Done Quick, which supports Doctors Without Borders and Prevent Cancer Foundation, has raised over $22.3 million since its inception in 2010. Among the faces behind these charity live streams is Benjamin Dr. Lupo, Lupo, a 32-year-old streamer who has amassed 3.6 million followers on Twitch.

On Saturday, December 21st, during a 24-hour stream, he managed to raise over $2.3 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with Twitch itself, contributing one million of that total. In a similar event this past summer, it took him just four hours to raise $920,000 for St. Jude. Lupo is one of many internet personalities that use their massive audience for altruism. Earlier this year, Harry Brewis, who uses the online handle H. Bomber Guy, played Donkey Kong 64 for 57 hours straight to raise money for the UK-based transgender advocacy group, Mermaids. He even caught the attention of U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who briefly called in during the stream. By the end of the video game marathon, Bruis had raised

approximately $340,000. In February, YouTuber Mark Markiplier, Fischbach, who has 24.7 million subscribers, raised more than $500,000 in 24 hours for the Homeless Youth Charity, My Friend's Place, end quote. According to Bloomberg, earlier this year, YouTube considered solving its horrible algorithm problems by screening all videos posted for kids under eight years old in their YouTube kids channel. Seems reasonable, right? Seems logical, seems responsible. But of course, YouTube ended up not going this route for the typical reasons why content platforms usually get gun shy. YouTube was afraid of overtly exercising editorial control less they look more like a media company than a platform and thus invite

additional scrutiny and regulation. Remember that landmark FTC settlement that YouTube agreed to earlier in the year? Quoting Bloomberg, YouTube privately considered taking more control. Earlier this year, it assembled a team of more than 40 employees to brace for the FTC decision. The team was codenamed Crosswalk, as in a way to guide kids across YouTube's chaotic streets. Among its proposals was a radical one, at least by the standards of Silicon Valley. YouTube would screen every video aimed at kids under the age of eight in its YouTube kids app, ensuring that no untoward content crept into the feed of millions of tots around the world. A press release was even drafted in which YouTube CEO Susan Wajicki said professional moderators would check each clip, according to people

familiar with the plans. Yet at the last minute, the CEO and her top deputies ditched the plan, said the people who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The rationale was clear to summit YouTube, one person involved in the project recalled, handpicking videos even for kids made YouTube look too much like a media company, not a neutral platform. A YouTube spokeswoman denied the idea was turned down because it put the company in charge of programming, but she declined to comment further on the decision. In a recent interview, Wajiki made it clear that her content moderation push only goes so far telling CBS News that even being liable for video recommendations would destroy the essence of the service. Quote, if we were held liable for every

single piece of content that we recommend, we would have to review it, she said. That would mean there would be a much smaller set of information that people would be finding, much, much smaller, end quote. YouTube's balancing act between media publisher or hands-off internet bulletin board has sparked intense debate internally. For some business partners and employees, this year's decisions leaves them with the impression that the company is unable to take a serious stand. Quote, what is the mission of this company? People don't even know, said Claire Stapleton, a former YouTube marketing manager who left this year after clashing with Google over employee protests. Quote, YouTube is so ill-equipped to manage these massive challenges, end quote.

Finally today, Jack Wellborn has an essay up talking about his impressions from using Catalysts over the last two months. In essence, his takeaway is that iOS and MacOS are so fundamentally different that the whole idea of getting a cohesive U.X with minimal effort using Catalyst to port an iPad app, is absurd, quoting this key bit. While both MacOS and iOS are easy to use, their ease stems from very different conventions. The more complicated Mac builds ease almost entirely through cohesion. Wherever possible, Mac applications are expected to share the same shortcuts, controls, windowing behavior, etc., so users can immediately find their bearings regardless of the

application. This also means that several applications existing in the same space largely share the same visual and Ux language. Having Finder, Safari, B, B, B, Edit, and Transmit, open on the same desktop looks and feels natural. By comparison, the bulk of iOS's simplicity stems from a single app paradigm. Tap an icon on the home screen to enter an app that takes over the entire user experience until exited.

Cohesion exists and is still important, but its surface area is much smaller because most iOS users only ever see and use a single app at a time. For better and worse, the single-app paradigm allows for more diverse conventions within apps. Having different conventions for doing the same thing across multiple full-screen apps is not an issue because users only have to ever deal with one of these conventions at a given time. That innocuous diversity becomes incongruous once those same apps have to live side-by-side, end quote. To which John Gruber added on Daring Fireball, quote,

I think part of the problem is Catalyst itself. It just doesn't feel like a nearly full-fledged framework for creating proper Mac apps yet. But I think another problem is the culture of doing a lot of non-standard custom UI on iOS. As Wellburn points out, that flies on iOS. We UI crumudgeons may not like it, but it flies, because you're only ever using one app at a time on iOS. It cracks a bit with split-screen multitasking on iPad OS, but I found that a lot of the iPad apps with the least standard UIs don't even support split-screen

multitasking on iPad OS, so the incongruities or incoherences to borrow Wellburn's well-chosen word don't matter as much. But try moving these apps to the Mac and the non-standard UIs stick out like a sore thumb. And whatever work the Catalyst frameworks do to support Mac conventions automatically doesn't kick in if the apps aren't using the standard UI kit controls to start with, e.g. scrolling a view with page up, page down, home, and end. An iOS app using standard Ui kit controls for scrollable views should, in theory, pick up support for those keys automatically. But a lot of apps don't because they're not using standard controls. In short, I remain unconvinced that standard Ui kit iPad apps are a good starting point for good Mac apps,

end quote. Happy boxing day to all you Commonwealth listeners out there. All I know is that St. Stephen's Day means I've been watching soccer all morning long. Talk to you tomorrow.