Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 05/18 – Google I/O

Episode Date: May 18, 2021

All the headlines from Google I/O. Amazon is in talks to acquire MGM and James Bond. When we might expect those new MacBook Pros, the first reviews of the M1 iMacs and what’s the deal with the new lossless streaming not working with most of Apple’s hardware? Sponsors: Cybereason.com TinyCapital.com Links: ANDROID 12 PREVIEW: FIRST LOOK AT GOOGLE’S RADICAL NEW DESIGN (The Verge) Amazon Pondering Deal to Buy MGM (The Information) Apple Readies MacBook Pro, MacBook Air Revamps (Bloomberg) APPLE’S NEW IMAC BRINGS M1 GOODNESS TO THE DESKTOP (The Verge) Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China (NYTimes) Exclusive: These are Apple’s new truly wireless in-ear Beats Studio earbuds (9to5Mac) 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 Tuesday, May 18th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. All the headlines from Google's I-O event. Amazon is in talks to acquire MGM and James Bond. When we might expect those new MacBook pros, the first reviews of the M1 IMAX, and what's the deal with the new lossless music streaming not working with most of Apple's hardware? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Just in FYI as we get started for, various reasons I had to record this next bit away from my studio this afternoon, so if you detect a change in audio quality for just this segment, that is why. Well, Google hadn't gotten to

deliver an I.O. Keynote in two years, so you'd imagine they'd have a lot to say. They usually do. These Google events tend to go on and on, and this was no exception. After a Toon Yard's performance with, I'm not joking, a bunch of blobs, soon Arpecci showed up in what felt like a back backyard, socially distanced, outside at the Googleplex in Mountain View. And yes, they had a ton to say. They went on for almost exactly two hours. I think I'll attempt to take it roughly in order. Google unveiled new features for workspace, part of an initiative called Smart Canvas,

including smart objects in docks and deeper integration with meat. I was trying to figure out who Google's going after with this one, and I came up with maybe Notion, Asana, perhaps. Then there was Lambda, a language model for dialogue applications that Google says represents a breakthrough for having natural conversations with AI. There was TPUV4, a new chip for machine learning, which Google says gets an average improvement of 2.7x over TPU version 3, and also features boost to memory bandwidth and more. Then there were a bunch of updates to password manager. There's an import tool, deeper integration across Chrome and Android. Android automatic password alerts for breaches, a quick fix feature in Chrome to help update

compromise passwords. Google said Duplex will help Chrome users more easily fix compromise passwords rolling out slowly to Chrome users with limited site compatibility at first. Google updated photos with AI-powered memories, a locked folder, cinematic moments to animate static photos and more. But then it was time for the marquee announce. Google detailed Android 12's new design based on the flexible material you system, with better widgets and buttons, more animations, privacy features, a ton more,

quoting Dieter at the verge. Android 12 exudes confidence in its design, unafraid to make everything much larger and a little more playful. Every big design change can be polarizing, and I expect Android users who prefer information density in their UI may find it a little off-putting. but after having used it for just a few days, it has already grown on me. Android 12 is one implementation of a new design system Google is debuting called Material U. Q of the jokes about UX versus UI versus U, I suppose.

Unlike the first version of material design, this new system is meant to mainly be a set of principles for creating interfaces, one that goes well beyond the original paper metaphor. Google says it will be applied across all of its products from the web to apps to hardware, to Android. Though as before, it's likely going to take a long time for that to happen. In any case, the point is that the new elements in Android 12 are Google's specific implementations of those principles on pixel phones, which is to say other phones might implement those principles differently or maybe not even at all. I can tell you what Google's version of Android 12 is going to look like and act like, but only Samsung can tell you what Samsung's version will do, and of course, when it will arrive. The feature Google will be crowing the most about is that

when you change your wallpaper, you'll have the option to automatically change your system colors as well. Android 12 will pull out both dominant and complementary colors from your wallpaper automatically and apply those colors to buttons and sliders and the like. It's neat, but I'm not personally a fan of changing button colors that much. The lock screen is also set for some changes. The clock is huge and centered if you have no notifications and slightly smaller, but still more prominent if you do. It also picks up an accent color based on the theming system. I see especially love the giant clock on the always-on display. Android's widget system has developed a well-deserved bad reputation. Many apps don't bother with them, and many more haven't updated their

widgets look since they first made one in Days of Yore. The result is a huge swath of ugly, broken, and inconsistent widgets for the home screen. Google is hoping to fix all that with its new widget system. As with everything else in Android 12, the widgets Google has designed for its own apps are big and bubbly with a playful design that's not in keeping with how most people might think of Android. One clever feature is that when you move a widget around on your wallpaper, it suddenly changes its background color to be closer to the part of the image it's set upon. As I've already mentioned, the most noticeable change in Android 12 is that all of the design elements are big, bubbly, and much more liberal in their use of animation. It certainly makes

the entire system more legible and perhaps more accessible, but it also means you're just going to get fewer buttons and menu items visible on a single screen. That tradeoff is worth it, I think. Simple things like brightness and volume sliders are just easier to adjust now, for example. As for the animation, so far I like them, but they definitely involve more visual flourish than before. When you unlock or plug in your phone, waves of shadow and light play across the screen, apps expand out clearly from their icons position, and drawers and other elements slide in and out with fade effects, end quote. Read the linked first look piece from Dieter for more. The whole look, in my opinion, the whole aesthetic, basically remember when everyone was customizing

their app icons by color on iOS? Yeah, it's like that, but gone wild across every single feature. It kind of looked very attractive in the videos, I have to admit. What else? They announced WareOS 3.0 with a revamped design and 30% performance boost. and partnered with Samsung, which will now use WearOS, not Tyson, for its next watches. Google also announced a partnership with Shopify to let Shopify's 1.7 million plus merchants easily sign up to have their products appear across YouTube, search, maps, images, and lens. Also, shout out to Google's health efforts, including a tool that uses AI to help spot skin, hair, and nail conditions based on images from patients. Google says it plans to launch that later this year.

all in all, it was a long, long event that was sort of lacking in any obvious narrative for me to summarize with. Google continues to sort of feel like it's trying to create the background operating system for real life, but stress background. They're not doing this in any overtly flashy or in your face way. There were no sort of headlines like when they originally debuted Duplex. And I guess that's sort of how Google wants it. How well all of this meshes together in the back. background, in reality is still an open question. There was, of course, other news today. We're going to talk about this some on the Twitter space

tomorrow night, but one way to look at yesterday's Warner Media News is that when we talk about the streaming wars, I think yesterday's news marks the threshold through which we are now entering the truly martial phase of these wars, where the dust is really going to be kicked up, where elbows are going to be thrown, where blood might be spilled, lots of media watchers are expecting the next few months to see a rash of consolidation as any media players not named Disney or Netflix probably have to play a life or death game of musical chairs slash the dating game. This is not exactly that, but it's not unrelated either. Sources are telling the information that Amazon is in talks to acquire MGM for between

$7 and $10 billion in what would be the biggest move to expand into entertainment on Amazon's part. Why is this related? Well, because if content libraries are the biggest strategic assets now, if IP is king, then MGM Holdings represents one of the rare content libraries still floating around out there up for grabs. What sort of IP are we talking about? Oh, you know, James Bond, Handmaid's Tale, Shark Tank, Survivor, quoting the information. Amazon's interest in MGM comes as traditional Hollywood is undergoing a new round of consolidation with Discoveries deal to acquire Warner Media from AT&T, as entertainment companies try to get more scales so they can better compete with Netflix and Disney. And Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. The status of Amazon's discussions with MGM

is unclear and it's possible no deal will result. Other companies have been looking at making a bid. MGM is owned by a group of private equity firms, including Anchorage Capital Group, Highland Capital Management, and Solace Alternative Asset Management. Those firms hired Morgan Stanley late last year to sell the business, the Wall Street Journal has reported, although it has been seen as available for sale for much longer. Forbes reported in January that Amazon had held exploratory talks around MGM. One issue has been price, however. MGM's financial statements show the company is barely growing. Its revenue was $1.46 billion last year down slightly from 2020, although it has risen from $1.18 billion in 2016, end quote. And it's funny how on days when,

especially Google makes major announcements or headlines, there just so happens to be a slew of Apple headlines that same day as well. Really funny how that happens. Mark German has a piece out outlining all the great updates we can probably expect this year for the Mac lineup, including a possible MacBook Pro upgrade as soon as the summer. Quote, Apple plans to launch the redesigned MacBook Pros in 14-inch, code-named J-314, and 16-inch screen, J-316 sizes. They'll have a redesigned chassis, magnetic magsafe charger, and more ports for connecting external drives and devices. Apple is also bringing back the H-D-I port and SD card slot, which it nixed in previous versions, sparking criticism from photographers and the like. For the new

MacBook pros, Apple is planning two different chips, codenamed Jade C-chop and Jade C-Dye. Both include eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores for a total of 10, but will be offered in either 16 or 32 graphics core variations. The high-performance cores kick in for more complex jobs, while the energy-efficient cores operate at slower speeds for more basic needs like web browsing, preserving battery life. The new chips differ from the M-1's design, which has four high-performance cores for energy-efficient cores and eight graphics cores in the current 13-inch MacBook Pro. The chips also include up to 64 gigabytes of memory versus a maximum of 16 on the M1. They'll have an improved neural engine which processes machine learning

tasks and enable the addition of more Thunderbolt ports which let users sync data and connect to external devices than the two on the current M1 MacBook Pro. Biers of the high-end MacPro desktop plan for next year will likely have a choice of two processors that are either twice or four times as powerful as the new high-end MacBook Pro chip, end quote. Meanwhile, Apple says the new iMac iPad Pro, Apple TV 4K that were announced last month, will be available around the world starting May 21st. And speaking of the new M1 iMac, the first reviews of that device are out. And given today, I only have room to quote from one, but the gist from the reviews I read this morning say this. The M1 chip is great. The new design is sleek and great. Finally, having a

halfway decent webcam is great, but limited ports are annoying for a desktop. It's not really the best value for money, and you can't upgrade anything after purchase, quoting Monica Chin's conclusion at the verge. And that right there is the biggest reason that this IMA, despite its power, is primarily targeting the family market because it's asking you to pay more in order to do less. You're paying $600 more not to have to research and budget out monitors, speakers, webcams, docks, keyboards, and mice. You're paying not to have to arrange thousands of things on your desk. You're paying for a device where everything out of the box works well. You're paying to eliminate fuss. Tech enthusiasts, especially those who want to pop their machines open and make their own upgrades,

may see that as a waste of money. And for them, it probably is. But they're not the target audience for this Mac, even if its specs might suit their needs. Could Apple have done more with this iMac? Of course. I was hoping to see a 30-inch 6K iMac with a powerhouse 12-core workstation chip this month as much as the next person. But I have faith that will get one in the future. And in the meantime, I'm glad Apple release this. It's not earth-shattering in its design. It doesn't redefine its category, but it's fun. It improves upon the 21-5-inch IMAQ to offer a simple, attractive, and very functional device for users across all kinds of categories. It's not the IMA to beat, but it is the IMA for most people to buy, end quote.

not all the headlines were good for Apple today. There's a piece in the New York Times where sources detail how Apple allegedly relented to escalating demands from the Chinese government making changes to governance of its Chinese users data and agreeing to censor its various platforms, quoting briefly, internal Apple documents reviewed by the New York Times, interviews with 17 current and former Apple employees and four security experts, and new filings made in a court case in the United States last week, provide rare insight into the compromises Mr. Cook has made to do business in China. They offer an extensive inside look, many aspects of which have never been reported before, at how Apple has given in to escalating demands from the Chinese authorities. At the data center

in Ji Yang, which Apple hoped would be completed by next month, and another in the Inner Mongolia region, Apple has largely ceded control to the Chinese government. Chinese state employees physically manage the computers. Apple abandoned the encryption technology it used elsewhere after China would not allow it, and the digital keys that unlock information on those computers are stored in the data centers. They're meant to secure, end quote. So that's not exactly a bad headline, right? Well, about those next generation AirPods, we know there's probably going to be a new generation of AirPods this year, and we think probably we can guess what big feature those might have as an enticement to upgrade to the third gen. And that's where the bad headlines come in because get this.

The Bluetooth AAC codec used by AirPods Pro, the existing versions, and AirPods Pro Max, do not support Apple's new lossless streaming for Apple Music, nor does Lightning on AirPods Max. Quoting Mac rumors. AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Macs are limited to the Bluetooth AAC codec when paired with an iPhone and won't be able to stream Apple Music lossless files. Apple confirmed

to T3. High-res lossless will require a USB digital to analog converter or similar equipment, but will provide the best sound experience. Listening to lossless audio on an iPhone will require wired headphones and it's possible an additional dongle will be needed to get the best

sound quality. AirPods Max will also not support lossless audio over the lightning cable, Apple told Micah Singleton. While the AirPods, AirPods, AirPods, Max, and AirPods Pro do not support lossless audio. They do support spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, and by default, Apple Music will automatically play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and beats headphones with an H-1 or W-1 chip, end quote. So imagine having spent $549 on shiny new AirPods max and not being able to listen to music in high quality on Apple music. That's insane. And didn't Apple recently do the same thing with that keyboard for the iPad pros? Two incidents in a row now where Apple upgrades one part of the ecosystem, but borks another very expensive, not that old part of the ecosystem. Like you do a big music quality update and

hardly any of your hardware to listen to it on actually supports it. That's insane. That's not Apple being Apple and being expensive. You want the concern troll take here? What if that's Apple's various teams not talking to each other very much anymore? So not everyone, even on the music side of things, is marching in the same direction. That is all for today. Let's see if I can get this out before 5 p.m. Eastern. Wish me luck. Talk to you tomorrow.