Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 02/11 - The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Event

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

All of the headlines from the big Samsung Unpacked event, the T-Mobile-Sprint merger is officially a go… mostly, Brandless is the first Softbank company to shut down entirely, a Sirius lifeline for Soundcloud, and has the CIA quietly been the real owner of the leading encryption company for decades now? Sponsors: DoubleUP.agency LinkedIN.com/ride Links: SAMSUNG’S GALAXY S20, PLUS, AND ULTRA FIRST LOOK: CAMERAS, 5G, AND 120HZ SCREENS (The Verge) Samsung’s new foldable Galaxy Z Flip will arrive on February 14th for $1,380 (The Verge) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip debuts w/ less expensive ‘flip phone’ design (9to5Google) Judge approves $26 billion merger of T-Mobile and Sprint (CNBC) Brandless shuts down operations, becoming SoftBank Vision Fund's first failure (Protocol) SiriusXM Acquires Minority Stake in SoundCloud for $75 Million (The Hollywood Reporter) Netflix dominates viewing on TVs over all other streaming services (CNET) ‘The intelligence coup of the century’ (Washington Post) 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 ride home for Tuesday, February 11th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. All of the headlines from the big Samsung unpacked event.

The T-Mobile Sprint merger is officially a go, mostly. Brandless is the first soft bank company to shut down entirely, a serious lifeline for SoundCloud, and has the CIA quietly been the real owner of the leading encryption company for decades? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. The Samsung Unpacked event was today. and unpacked, it was jam-packed. Let's hit the big news first.

Samsung's flagship smartphone lineup this year is officially the Galaxy S-20. So indeed, we're skipping everything from the Galaxy S-11 through the Galaxy S-19, but, you know, if you were going to go to a year-based naming scheme, this would probably be the year to do it. There are three versions of the S-20, the Galaxy S-20, the Galaxy S-20, the Galaxy S-20 plus, and the highest end, the Galaxy-S-20. the Galaxy S20 Ultra. I'll get to the specs and the differences in a second, but first, one important thing to note.

All three of the Galaxy S20 devices get Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipsets, which means they all get 5G, which means 5G is really officially at long last here. And technically, each of these phones officially has 5G appended to the names, but, you know, let's not do that. Okay. Spex. The Galaxy S20 is a 6.2 inch screen. The Galaxy S20 plus is a 6.7 inch screen, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra is a 6.9 inch screen. They're available beginning March 6th. The pre-orders begin February 21st, and the price ranges from $999.99 to $1,59.99. Take it away. Dieter at the Verge,

quote, if you're trying to make sense of the differences between the three phones, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that at a high level, all you need to know is that, although they mostly share the same guts, there's a good, better, best cadence to them. The 6.2-inch S-20 lacks MM-Wave 5G and has the lowest-end camera array of the three. The 6.7-inch S-20 plus adds MM-Wave and better cameras. And finally, the S-20 Ultra is unabashedly huge at 6.9 inches with a camera system that's as big and complex as nearly any other you can find on a phone. After a couple years of other Android phone makers nipping at Samsung's heels, the S-20 lineup is the company's statement for 2020 that it can still make the best Android phones around.

Though Samsung will tell you the name jumped from S-10 to S-20 because it represents a new foundation, what it really means is that Samsung is doing whatever it can to make you pay attention to these phones. That's probably because once you absorb their impressive specs, these look, feel, and act exactly like the Samsung Galaxy phones you're already familiar with. Build quality is excellent. The screens are vibrant and massive, and the glass on the back picks up fingerprints like it's a crime lab investigator. The new design elements are minor. The whole punch for the selfie camera has been reduced and moved to the center. The camera bump has been extended into a rectangle to accommodate even more cameras, and the headphone jack is gone,

making 2020 the first year when every major flagship phone from Samsung won't have one, end quote. Each display on the S-20s is an OLED HDR plus with 120 hertz refresh rate. And yes, the 5G capability is a big deal, but the camera system is a big deal too. The S20 plus and Ultra get 4864 and 108 megapixel sensors, though the default when you're actually shooting will always be for 12. megapixel shots, quoting Dieter again. Samsung's contention is that it's able to use a combination of these sensors, the chips that control them, and its own software to make those high-end megapixel sensors do things that other smartphones can't, like zoom in up to 100 times when

taking a photo. For the S-20 Ultra, Samsung went all out and included a folded zoom lens, which means that the hole on the back of the phone actually hits a prism that redirects light across the phone to the sensor. It's the same basic concept Huawei used in the P30 to achieve its zoom last year. That gets the S20 Ultra to 4X zoom. Then Samsung says it can do lossless hybrid optic zoom up to 10x through some combination of binning, combining multiple pixels into one big pixel and sensor cropping. After that, it's digital zoom up to 100x using similar methods, end quote. Now, other deets on these phones. The S20 has a 4,000 MAHH battery, the plus a 4,500 MAAH, and the Ultra 5,000 MAHBH battery.

I might have actually missed the part on the claimed battery life, though. These are the first Samsung phones to record 8K video. Samsung really wants you to know about that whole folded lens system, which bounces light through a mirror, so it doesn't have to have as protruding a camera bump while getting all that zoom. Still, though, the camera modules on the back are ginormous. It kind of looks like a fourth of the overall back real estate. The phones come in a range of colors. There will be a special Olympics version.

The new ability to share files between galaxy phones that was rumored is here. And then on, of course, to the foldable phone, the Galaxy Z flip. Yes, it is Samsung's first foldable phone to feature a glass screen, which Samsung promises will be more durable, capable of being unfolded 200,000 times. The OLED is 6.7 inches. It has an exceptionally wide 22 by 9 aspect ratio, but it folds up to be the size of a wallet, Samsung said. I was unable to find the exact dimensions right now. Samsung 855 plus processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 256 gigabytes of internal storage. It has a 3,300 MAHH battery, dual cameras of the 12 megapixel sensor variety, one of those an ultra-wide lens. There's a one-inch display on the outside when you fold it up that mostly shows the time and notifications, but it is an Amel-led display, so it can also be used as a viewfinder when taking selfies.

And yes, Samsung wanted to tell you a lot about how it made this happen with its hinge. The hinge can hold itself open at any angle. Samsung calls this flex mode. When in flex mode, there is automatic screen and app adjustment so you could say have a YouTube video playing at the top and comments scrolling on the bottom. The hinge is designed to be more durable with a sort of cilia fiber system in there to keep dust and other stuff from getting in and screwing things up. But very important, the Z flip is not 5G, which really, once I realize that, I mean, does that kind of hobble this phone? Maybe make it dead on arrival if this is the year of 5G. Still, really not an underpowered phone by any means and decent price, at least in the foldable universe, quoting 9 to 5 Google.

Where the Galaxy Fold cost $1,980, the Galaxy Z Flip starts at $1,380. It's still quite the investment, but a much easier pill to swallow. Plus, the Z Flip is available at all major carriers in the U.S., and there will be deals to help with that cost. the Z-Flip is available on February 14th, end quote. What else? Live captioning is coming to the S-20s. I believe these are the first non-pixel phones to get that. Also, Google's Duo automatic calling system comes to these phones.

Also, the first non-pixels, I believe, to get those. Bixby integration is coming to Netflix on these phones, so you can just talk out loud and ask for the show you want to watch. Samsung also unveiled the Gets. Galaxy Buds plus earbuds. Apparently, they have 40% larger speakers, but no noise cancellation, interestingly. Apparently, there are now two different microphones to improve call quality, which was a complaint that a lot of people had in the previous generation. They also have wireless charging, so you can use the back of a compatible galaxy phone to charge them.

11 hours of battery time, 22 hours with the case. That's a pretty huge boost to battery life. They will cost $149 and will launch February 14th. And I think that's everything. I'll pick up anything I miss tomorrow. So I think it's officially official. The T-Mobile Sprint merger is a done deal mostly after a U.S. judge has ruled in the company's favor in the $26 billion deal and against the state attorneys general who had brought a lawsuit to block the deal, quoting CNBC.

In his decision filed Tuesday, Judge VIII. Victor Marrero wrote, quote, the resulting stalemate leaves the court lacking sufficiently impartial and objective ground on which to rely in basing a sound forecast of the likely competitive effects of a merger, end quote. The judge laid out three points on which the court rejected the state's objection to the merger. First, he said they failed to convince the court that the merged party, quote, would pursue anti-competitive behavior that soon after the merger directly or indirectly will yield higher prices or lower quality for wireless telecommunications services. end quote. Second, the court rejected that Sprint would be able to continue operating effectively as a wireless services competitor without the merger. Quote, the court is thus substantially persuaded that Sprint does not have a sustainable long-term competitive strategy and will in fact cease to be a truly national mobile network operator, the ruling said. And finally, the court rejected the state's argument that

DISH network, quote, would not enter the wireless services market as a viable competitor nor live up to its commitments to build a national wireless network, end quote. The deal called for DISH to step in as a new wireless player based on agreements with the DOJ and FCC, end quote. So again, kind of official. The stocks of both companies are soaring in an indication that they think it's official, though worth noting that the California Public Utilities Commission still has to approve the transaction. We do officially have our first soft bank backed company to enter the Deadpool, direct to consumer retailer Brandlis plans to shut down, laying off 70 people or 90% of its staff. The remaining 10 employees will finish any outstanding customer orders and evaluate offers

to buy the company's assets, quoting protocol. While many soft bank companies have been facing layoffs and trimming costs, brandless is the first to shutter its business operations entirely. A SoftBank Vision Fund representative confirmed a protocol. The Japanese conglomerate declined to comment further. In early January, SoftBank backed Zoom laid off half its staff. shutting down its pizza delivery operations and announced it was refocusing around sustainable packaging. Other troubled SoftBank companies are reworking their business models as well, like Carlycer Fair,

which announced it was no longer going to rent cars weekly to Uber drivers, citing the high insurance costs. Brandless had been one of SoftBank's highest profile companies. Launched in 2017, the online retailer had a big ambition to sell Better for You Essential Products at lower-than-name brand prices, going toe to toe against Amazon and Walmart. But the economics were tricky from the start. Everything it sold was $3, a fact that reportedly flabbergasted and intrigued SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son. A year after its launch, SoftBank pledged a $240 million investment in the company at a valuation of over $500 million, a high bar for a year old company.

In total, the company raised around $290 million from investors, including Red Point, NEA, GV, and Slow Ventures, according to Pitchbook, end quote. Apparently, SoftBank structured its deal so that it would deliver the cash in stages, so it's highly likely that that full $240 million was never actually delivered. Brandless was reportedly losing tons of money due to high shipping costs, and the rumors have been swirling all weekend that the Vision Fund 2 is having trouble raising money,

and once it closes will likely be way below the targeted $100 billion planned. Lifeline for SoundCloud, which has been a company that has seemed to be floundering, Sirius XM has invested $75 million in SoundCloud in exchange for a minority stake and two seats on the SoundCloud Board of Directors. Worth noting that last year, Sirius XM purchased music streaming service Pandora, quoting the Hollywood Reporter. The minority investment follows a successful advertising sales relationship between SoundCloud and Pandora that started last year. Under the relationship, advertisers and brands can purchase SoundCloud's U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora and use the company's direct sales capabilities, targeting data and audio programmatic platform. Together, SoundCloud and Pandora's combined U.S. audience offering reaches more than 100 million unique listeners, creating the largest digital audio advertising marketplace, Serious XM said on Tuesday. SoundCloud, which offers a free and ad-free $9.99 a month service for listeners, as well as various service tiers for creators that cost between $6 and $16 per month, said it set all-time highs for engagement, creators heard, subscribers, and revenue in 2019.

The company mentioned it for the first time reached a $200 million forward revenue run rate in the fourth quarter. The improvements came after SoundCloud in 2017 faced an uncertain future before securing a 1669. $1.5 million round of funding from the likes of Rain Group and Singapore-based investment company Temasek, along with a new executive team, end quote. According to Nielsen, streaming now makes up fully 19% of overall U.S. TV watching hours, with Netflix comprising 31% of streaming on TVs, followed by YouTube at 21%, Hulu at 12% and Amazon at 8%. Quoting CNET, Everything else, a kitchen sink,

grouping that included free ad-supported options such as Tooby, as well as brand-new subscription services such as Disney Plus, represented a 28% chunk of viewership, almost as big as Netflix itself. The ballooning number of services has raised the specter of subscription fatigue. Like many studies, Nielsen found that the vast majority of people subscribe to one to three paid streaming services. But as options expand, we aren't showing signs of pulling back. 93% say they'll either increase or keep their own. existing streaming subscriptions. When adding a new paid service, more people said they'd simply add on a new one at an additional cost, 38%, rather than swapping out one they already have, 27%. And 13%

say they would sample new content by borrowing logging credentials from someone they know. When people do cancel a paid service, the majority 42% say they quit because they felt they weren't using it enough to make the cost worthwhile. People who sign up for just one piece of programming are in the minority, with 16% saying they canceled a service after viewing the only piece of content, though another 20% say they cancel because they've watched everything they were interested in, end quote. Note that Nielsen found you had 646,152 unique titles to choose from last year across the traditional linear TV and all the streaming services. That was up 10% from the previous year. About 9% of those 600,000 odd titles were exclusive to one subscription service or another.

Finally, today this one is a bit of a wow. Sources have told the Washington Post that the CIA has for years secretly been the owner of the leading supplier of encryption systems worldwide and could easily read both allies and adversaries communications for decades. A source is quoted in the story as calling this the intelligence coup of the decade. Quote, the company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build codemaking machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves

of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits, and finally, silicon chips and software. The Swiss firm made millions of dollars selling equipment to more than 120 countries well into the 21st century. Its clients included Iran, military. junta's in Latin America, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican. But what none of its customers ever knew was that crypto AG was secretly owned by the CIA in a highly classified partnership with West German intelligence. These spy agencies rigged the company's

devices so they could easily break the codes that countries used to send encrypted messages, end quote. Now, the program did have its limits as the Soviet Union and China were never customers of crypto AG. But for example, thanks to the program, which was originally internally codenamed Thesaurus and later Rubicon, during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, for example, the CIA and NSA could monitor the communications of the Iranian mullahs. Britain could track Argentina's military during the Falklands War, and this is how intelligence agencies knew that Libya was behind the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco. Quoting again, from 1970 on, the CIA and its code-breaking sibling, the National Security Agency, controlled nearly every aspect of crypto's operations, presiding with their German partners over hiring decisions, designing its technology, sabotaging its algorithms, and directing its sales targets.

Then, the U.S. and West German spies sat back and listened, end quote. That's all for today, since I've got a rush to get this out. Follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC. Tell your friends about the podcast. Talk to you tomorrow.