Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 05/21 - Has Apple fixed the MacBook keyboard problem?

Episode Date: May 21, 2019

Has Apple fixed the MacBook keyboard problem? Huawei gets a 90 day reprieve, Instagram wants to copy Snapchat AND TikTok, the first self-driving mail trucks, and why would your smart car want to tell people if you’ve gained weight? Sponsors: AirTable.com/techmeme Castro Podcast App Sonic.com/ride Links: Apple tweaks its troubled MacBook keyboard design yet again, expands repair program (The Verge) U.S. eases curbs on Huawei; founder says clampdown underestimates Chinese firm (Reuters) Google will work with Huawei for 90 days after US eases trade restrictions (CNBC) DOJ Leans Against Approving T-Mobile’s Takeover of Sprint (Bloomberg) Instagram's IGTV copies TikTok's AI, Snapchat's Design (TechCrunch) Google brings release channels and Windows Container support to its Kubernetes Engine (TechCrunch) Self-Driving Trucks Will Carry Mail in U.S. for the First Time (Bloomberg) Hand Gestures And Horses: Waymo’s Self-Driving Service Learns To Woo The Public (Forbes) Chevy rolls out new feature that locks teens out of driving until they buckle up (The Verge) Your Car Knows When You Gain Weight (NYTimes) Subscribe to the ad-free, Premium Feed! 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 Tuesday, May 21st, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today has Apple fixed the MacBook keyboard problem. Huawei gets a 90-day respite. Instagram wants to copy Snapchat and TikTok, the first self-driving mail trucks, and why would your smart car want to tell people you've gained weight? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Apple has updated the 13-inch and 15-inch

MacBook Pro Touchbar models, and this is mainly a spec bump, but, first of all, the laptops get ninth-generation Intel processors with up to eight cores, which, on the fastest model, Apple claims, can achieve 40% faster speeds than previous chips. But what's getting all of the headlines is that Apple said these new computers also have a new iteration of its butterfly keyboard, using new materials in the switch mechanism that Apple says should reduce things like double key presses and missed key presses, quoting the verge. The company had no announcements on whether it would use this, quote, new material on other MacBooks, it sells going forward, i.e., whether it would change its manufacturing on current third-generation devices. On a call this morning, the company also declined to actually characterize what the new material is other than to say it, quote, substantially reduces, the issue of double or missed key presses. The new design still counts as third generation,

aka the same keyboard that shipped on the new MacBook Air, end quote. So will this at long last fix the plague of keyboard problems that MacBooks have had? Guess we're going to see shortly, right? As Nilai Patel tweeted, everyone, butterfly MacBook keyboards are bad. Apple, here's another generation of them. Everyone. Still bad. Apple. This time they have rubber seals. Everyone. Still bad. Maybe it's just a bad design? Apple. Hmm. Same design with new materials, though. Well, so maybe things have calmed down a bit since yesterday, quoting from Reuters. On Monday, the Commerce Department granted Huawei a license to buy U.S. goods until August 19th to maintain existing telecoms networks. and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones,

a move intended to give telecom operators that rely on Huawei, time to make other arrangements. Huawei is still prohibited from buying American-made hardware and software to make new products without further hard-to-obtain licenses, end quote. So for 90 days, if you have a Huawei handset, you can still get the latest Android updates, use the Play Store, etc., because the move allowed Google to announce this morning that the company has reverse course and will continue to work with Huawei at least for the next 90 days.

Quote, keeping phones up to date and secure is in everyone's best interest. And this temporary license allows us to continue to provide software updates and security patches to existing models for the next 90 days, a Google spokesperson told CNBC in an email on Tuesday morning. So what now? According to Shen Yi, who works at HTC, quote, Huawei have a lot to do. do in three months if they are prioritizing security for existing phones. One, migrate their OTA system away from Google servers. Two, adapt as many system APKs to being Google Play updatable. Three, probably get a treble ROM for Q with G-Apps ready before the deadline, end quote.

David Ruddock of Android Police again tweeted, quote, Yeah, this is definitely to help Huawei transition away from American tech and services and avoid undue hardship, and definitely not yet another ultimatum to China to close a trade deal. Nope. No way. End quote. And following up on something else from yesterday's show, sources are telling Bloomberg that the Department of Justice is leaning against approving T-Mobile's takeover of Sprint because the company's proposals don't go far enough to resolve antitrust, concerns. Quote, opposition to the deal by the Justice Department's antitrust chief McCann del Rahim could mark a rare break with the FCC. The two agencies work side by side on merger reviews

and typically emerge on the same page about whether to approve deals. While the FCC considers whether a merger is in the public's interest, the Justice Department considers a different standard, whether a deal hurts competition and would raise prices for consumers, end quote. Apparently, those conflicting winds of rumor had a real whipsaw effect on the stocks of both T-Mobile and Sprint yesterday. Instagram might have successfully cloned stories from Snapchat, but IGTV Instagram's efforts to do the same to Snapchat Discover has not enjoyed similar success. Quoting Josh Constine and TechCrunch, sensor tower estimates that the IGTV app has just 4.2 million installs. world wide with just 7,700 new ones per day, implying less than half a percent of Instagram's billion plus users have downloaded it, end quote. And now, with the rise of TikTok, it looks like

Instagram fears it is falling behind in the mobile video race, because it has apparently quietly overhauled the design of the IGTV app to, again, copy what seems to be working for others, quoting from Constine again. IGTV has ditched its category-based navigation systems tabs, like for you, following, popular, and continue watching, for just one central feed of algorithmically suggested videos, much like TikTok. This affords a more lean-back,

just show me something fun experience that relies on Instagram's AI to analyze your behavior and recommend content instead of putting the burden of choice on the viewer. IGTV has also ditched its awkward, horizontal scrolling design that always kept a clip playing in the top half of the screen. Now you'll scroll vertically through a two times infinity grid of recommended clips in what looks just like a Snapchat Discover feed. Once you get past a first video that auto plays up top, you'll find a full screen grid of things to watch. You'll only see the horizontal

scroller in the standalone IGTV app, or if you tap into an IGTV video, and then tap the browse button for finding a next clip while the last one plays on top, end quote. So will straddling the design of the competitors it fears most or is maybe most jealous of work for IGTV, Constine is skeptical saying that Instagram might be focusing on the wrong thing. Format instead of content. Constine writes, quote, to grow large, IGTV needs to demonstrate how long-form portrait mode video can give us a deeper look at the nuances of the influencers and topics we care about. My advice from August still stands despite all the ground Instagram has lost in the meantime.

Concentrate on teaching creators how to find what works on the format and incentivize them with cash and traffic. Develop some must-see IGTV and stoke a viral blockbuster. Prove the gravity of extended personality-driven vertical video. Until the content is right, it won't matter how. IGTV surfaces it, end quote. At Kubicon plus cloud native con, Google today announced three new channels for its Google Kubernetes engine or GKE. The channels are rapid, regular, and stable.

So Google cloud users can pick a channel to decide if they want the newest release or the more stable ones. Quoting from the press release, each channel offers different version maturity and freshness, allowing developers to subscribe their cluster to a stream of updates that match risk tolerance and business requirements, end quote. And quoting TechCrunch. The company is launching this new feature into Alpha, with the first release in the Rapid Channel, which will give developers early access to the latest versions of Kubernetes. With this release into the Rapid Channel, Google is also bringing early support for Windows containers to GKE. Over the course of the last

few releases, the Kubernetes community brought improved Windows support to the platform, and now Google will offer support for Windows server containers in June, end quote. Handful of auto tech stories here that are all kind of vaguely related. First, starting today, self-driving trucks will carry mail for the U.S. Postal Service for the first time with autonomous truck startup True Simple, operating a two-week pilot between Phoenix and Dallas. Quoting Bloomberg. There will be five round trips between the two cities with the first hall leaving from Phoenix this morning. It's the first time that the Postal Service has contracted with an autonomous provider for long-haul service. The Postal Service spends more

than $4 billion a year on highway trucking services through outside contractors. Those costs have been rising due to the national shortage of drivers. Self-driving trucks could save hundreds of millions by eliminating human drivers and the hours of service rules that keep them from driving around the clock. For now, however, True Simple will have a safety driver behind the wheel for the thousand mile trip between Phoenix and Dallas, as well as an engineer in the passenger seat monitoring the autonomous systems. In the future, the startup aims to provide depot to depot service without drivers, end

quote. And Forbes has an update on Waymo's driverless taxi service, Waymo One, six months after this service started ferrying actual people around in Phoenix. Yes, there are still human drivers behind the wheel for most Waymo-1 rides, but Forbes says that the rides are now noticeably better, smoother than they've been in the past. But also, it seems the big hurdle now is just getting people, both riders and other drivers and pedestrians, to feel at ease around the vehicles. Oh, and the authorities, too, quote,

The fire and police in Chandler, where Waymo One is based, have been working with the company and Arizona's Department of Public Safety to set standards for handling accidents or emergencies that will happen at some point. Beyond the initial shock of not seeing a person in the vehicle, which we're getting used to, protocols are being established, says Chandler Police Chief Sean Duggan. As a police officer, one of the first questions that gets asked, is who gets the ticket? How do you contact whomever? End quote. There have been a half dozen collisions involving a Waymo vehicle, Duggan says, but not ones where the Waymo vehicle was at fault.

In fact, the department hasn't issued any citations to Waymo in the past couple of years. Ahead of the commercial launch, there were reports that the vans irritate local commuters because they take too long to make left turns and of assaults on Waymo vans, including rock throwing a slash tire and even an individual who aimed a gun at one. Quote, people tend to be frustrated when a vehicle is actually obeying the law by stopping completely at intersections and making turns cautiously, Duggan said. That happens regardless of if it's a self-driving or a person, end quote. And the pistol incident was more about mental health, he says.

Both he and Chandler-Mayer Hartke say angry events involving Waymo vehicles are rare and that locals aren't making a stink about them, end quote. And finally today, the verge is reporting that Chevy is rolling out a new feature that blocks teenage drivers from driving Chevy cars until they actually put on their seatbelts. Quote, teens are notoriously seatbelt scofflaws. In 2017, only 59% of high school students reported always wearing seatbelts when driving or riding in the front passenger seat, according to the CDC. Chevy's new feature will actively prevent teens from driving until they fasten their seatbelts.

The new buckle-to-drive feature will come standard on all 2020 Chevy Traverse, Malibu, and Colorado vehicles. It works by programming a key fob so that the teen driver setting is on by default. That way, when your teen uses their key to start the car, the seatbelt will need to be clicked in order to unlock the gear shift. Moreover, the radio will always stay muted until the seatbelt is fastened. The idea is to basically annoy your teen with little inconveniences until they buckle their seatbelt, end quote. So pretty cool, right? This is the promise of our cars getting smart. This is good, positive use of tech in an automotive setting, right?

Cars are increasingly getting smarter. Bill Hanvey, the CEO of the AutoCare Association, says that with things like this, and like automatic braking, turn-by-turn directions, and infatement systems, our vehicles are essentially becoming smartphones on wheels. And so, Hanvey asks, does that mean they are becoming surveillance tools, just like our smartphones have become? For example, are you comfortable knowing that your car can now keep track of how much you weigh, maybe how much weight you've gained over the last couple months? Who might your car be sharing that sort of data with?

Quoting Hanvey's op-ed in the New York Times. Today's cars are equipped with telematics in the form of an always-on wireless transmitter that constantly sends vehicle performance and maintenance data to the manufacturer. Modern cars collect as much as 25 gigabytes of data per hour, the consulting firm McKinsey estimates. And it's about much more than performance and maintenance. Cars not only know how much we weigh, but also track how much weight we gain. They know how fast we drive, where we live, how many children we have, even financial information, information. Connect a phone to a car and it knows who we call and who we text. But who owns and ultimately controls that data and what are carmakers doing with it? The issue of ownership is murky. Drivers

usually sign away their rights to data in a small print clause buried in the ownership or lease agreement. It's not unlike buying a smartphone. The difference is that most consumers have no idea vehicles collect data, end quote. Hanvey points out that some automakers are already talking openly about monetizing your vehicle's data by selling it to third parties. Who might be interested? Quoting again, the data on your driving habits, how fast you drive, how hard you break, whether you always use your seatbelt, could be valuable to insurance companies. You may or may not choose to share your data with these services,

but while you can turn off location data on your cell phone, there's no opt-out feature for your car, end quote. but also perhaps inevitably, quote, your location data will allow companies to advertise to you based on where you live, work, or frequently travel. Data gathered from voice command technology could also be useful to advertisers, end quote. Henvi says that laws should be passed to give vehicle owners and lessees control over the data their cars generate.

He's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart because his organization represents independent auto repair shops that fear being locked out of proprietary repair and diagnostic data. i.e., the car manufacturers might force you to get your car tuned up in their own shops. Quote, imagine visiting a medical specialist and learning he can't get access to the medical history that your doctor maintains or having a financial advisor acknowledged that neither of you can see your accounts unless you pay a fee, end quote. But still, this is a good point.

Here is another new area where all of us are generating data that major corporations plan to just strip mine for their own profit, which, potentially, according to the op-ed, could be as much as $750 billion by 2030. Maybe with this, we can draw a line in the sand now. I feel like our cars are an extension of our homes, our private, personal spaces. Give us control now over what we share and what the corporations can take, and maybe give us the option to get a taste as well. Maybe I would want to share my driving habits with my insurance company if I got lower rates

or even with Target if I got, I don't know, regular coupons and discounts out of it. That's all for today. I've been your host as always, Brian McCullough. Follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC, the show subreddit where you can tip me stories every day and talk about them with fellow listeners is our slash right home. The last link at the very bottom of the show notes allows you to subscribe to the ad-free feed. And in case you've forgotten, we do have a sister podcast every day, the primary ride home, which covers the presidential horse race every day. Talk to you tomorrow.