Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/04 – Last Hurrah? iMacs Get A Major Update

Starting point is 00:00:00 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, August 4th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. Intel IMAX get a major update. The TikTok Microsoft Trump situation can only be described as Nutso Butzo. Looks like Garmin paid the ransom. Why XCloud is launching soon on Android, but not on iOS, and get ready for games to get more expensive with the next generation consoles. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Super late-breaking news here. Phil Schiller is stepping down as Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing to be replaced by his deputy Greg Joswiak, quoting CNBC. Schiller will continue to work at Apple as an Apple fellow, the company said, and will continue his role as the boss of Apple's App Store and company events.

Starting point is 00:01:24 Schiller will also continue to report to Apple's CEO Tim Cook. Schiller has worked at Apple since 1987. I'll keep working here as long as they'll have me. I bleed six colors, but I also want to make some time in the years ahead for my family friends and a few personal projects I care deeply about, Schiller said in a statement. Schiller's departure from his formal role on Apple's leadership team comes following several other notable departures over the last couple years, including head of design Johnny Ive, PR boss, Steve Dowling, and retail boss, and Arns. But Apple also made an addition to its exact team in that same time period with John Gian Andrea, the head of artificial intelligence, end quote. Yes, and to quote Ben Thompson on Twitter,

Starting point is 00:02:08 I think it's a solid bet to assume that Schiller isn't in charge of the App Store in around six months or so, end quote. Well, I'm sure we're in for a whole bunch of Cupertino Kremlinology pieces in the next few days. Apple's IMAX got. a pretty major spec update today. Not a new design, although there has been much speculation and rumor-mongering about new designs lately. Listen to this, though, quoting the verge. Apple is announcing updates for both the 27-inch and 21-and-a-half-inch IMAX. It's updating the processors inside to Intel's 10th-gen Comet Lake processors, and also switching out the webcam to a higher-resolution 1080P HD sensor instead of the low-res 720P found in other Macs.

Starting point is 00:02:59 SSDs are now standard across the line, and there will be a bunch of new configuration options, including a nanotexture version with less reflective matte glass. The 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799, is available to order today, and we'll ship this week. The 21-5-inch iMac starts at $1,099, and we'll ship next week. Apple is also giving the iMac Pro a small spec bump making the 10 core Intel chips the new baseline for $4,99, also shipping next week. Oddly, the iMac Pro is not otherwise getting updated. This is not the major redesign that has been rumored and hoped for, nor is it the first arm-based Mac. Instead, the 2020 iMacs look identical to the last generation, including the large black bezel all the way around the screen, and the big metal chin at the bottom.

Starting point is 00:03:51 Apple says that, as it noted at WWDC, it intends to support Intel-based Macs for many years to come, end quote. Yes, they have stated that strenuously many times, but you got to figure there would be a significant Osborne effect with these updated machines. Would you gamble a big investment on these as they appear to be the end of the road, the last hurrah maybe for Intel Max? Also, clearly, you'd figure Apple is holding a form factor redesign for the Apple's silicon debut whenever that comes. The TikTok saga goes on, and there's no word of a deal being closed, but one has to assume that the negotiations are ongoing. The weird sort of complication that went on overnight was basically the president of the

Starting point is 00:04:48 United States. President Trump yesterday said that he is, in fact, fine with the idea. idea of Microsoft buying TikTok's operations in the U.S., reversing what he said late last week, but also he said that the U.S. government should be paid a, quote, substantial amount of money if any deal goes through. Here is specifically what the president said, and I quote, I did say that if you buy it, whatever the price is, that goes to whoever owns it, because I guess it's China, essentially, but more than anything else, I said a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we're

Starting point is 00:05:25 making it possible for this deal to happen. Right now, they don't have any rights unless we give it to them. So if we're going to give them the rights, then it has to come into, it has to come into this country. It's a little bit like the landlord-tenant relationship. Without a lease, the tenant has nothing. So they pay what is called key money, or they pay something. But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money because without the United States, they don't have anything, at least having to do with the 30 percent, end quote. I understand that the president of the United States has experience in real estate, but the U.S. government getting some sort of kickback resulting from a transaction between two private

Starting point is 00:06:06 companies is not quite how things are done, especially when those companies are merging at the behest of the government, i.e. is the president essentially saying, you two must merge, we order it, and also pay us for what we are ordering you to do. That's, let me quote the Wall Street Journal here, which we can stipulate, usually represents the mainstream opinion of, you know, capitalism. Quote, while the U.S. government has been compensated by private companies before for financing or arranging bailouts, for instance, this would be unprecedented. It amounts to a finder's fee, key money in Mr. Trump's parlance,

Starting point is 00:06:48 which is an often illegal real estate practice. Whatever some Microsoft agreed to pay, bite dance would be further reduced. Perhaps the White House will quietly walk back the proposal. Mr. Trump has often confused the flow of money in matters of international politics. He frequently insists that the Chinese, rather than U.S. consumers, pay billions to the government as a result of tariffs, or that NATO allies pay fees directly for protection rather than having a target for defense spending as a share of their economy. If the proposal is serious and deemed legal, it would set a dangerous precedent for the seizure of foreign businesses through regulatory fiat and open the door for U.S. firms to suffer the same

Starting point is 00:07:29 treatment. In countries such as Venezuela, that often has recently been the case. Many business assets such as licenses to operate, mineral rights, or physical facilities can be had for token compensation. Landing the U.S. part of the wildly popular TikTok could be a major prize for Microsoft, But if the price includes an unseemly payout to the U.S. Treasury, corporate America has far more to lose than to gain by participating, end quote. And one more important implication to consider here. What does this whole brouhaha look like to the rest of the world, i.e., don't make any tech company too popular or else the U.S. could shut you out of our market or even force you to essentially sell to U.S. owners? Does this seem threatening to any foreign companies that value their independence? You would think it does. Also, from the journal, here's the Chinese perspective. With a TikTok sale, China would lose control of its first homegrown global internet sensation,

Starting point is 00:08:30 hardening the suspicions inside China that the U.S. is looking to sabotage its internal tech growth. Quote, unlike other Chinese tech titans, which have largely struggled to expand globally while winning fans, at home by cloning Western platforms, TikTok's breakout success has been the product of its own innovation, said Matthew Brennan, a China-based tech consultant. Quote, TikTok was the moment when China's technology went from copy to China to copy from China, he said. Short video had first found more traction in China, and when BightDance moved into the U.S. market, they were leading the big trend, end quote. And this is from Bloomberg, quote, while the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs has declined a comment on Microsoft's TikTok Talks.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Spokesman Wang Wei Bin reiterated criticism Tuesday of what he said were Washington's double standards and overreach. Quote, if following the wrong example set by the U.S., every country could use national security as an excuse to target American companies, Wang told a regular news briefing in Beijing. The U.S. should not open a Pandora's box, otherwise it will swallow the bitter fruit itself, end quote. Quick follow-up to a story from a couple weeks ago. Remember that Garmin ransomware attack, where they were desperately trying to shut everything down before it all got encrypted? Yeah, well, it looks like Garmin paid the ransom. Quoting the verge. Fitness brand Garmin paid millions of dollars in ransom after an attack took many of its products

Starting point is 00:10:01 and services offline last month, Sky News reports. The payment was reportedly made through a ransomware negotiation company called Arretir, IR, in order for Garland. Garmin to recover data held hostage as a result of the attack. Bleeping Computer reports that it believes Garmin must have paid the ransom because of the lack of known weaknesses in the wasted locker virus. Code from a Garmin developed executable reviewed by Bleeping Computer suggests the company paid the ransom on either July 24th or July 25th, and the publication confirmed that the executable was able to decrypt sample files encrypted by wasted locker, end quote.

Starting point is 00:10:38 They telegraphed this was coming, but the European Commission has indeed officially opened an in-depth investigation into Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit over concerns about the vast amount of user data Google would have access to via this deal, quoting the commission itself. Following its first phase investigation, the Commission has concerns about the impact of the transaction on the supply of online search and display advertising services, the sale of advertising space on, respectively the result page of an internet search and. engine or other internet pages, as well as on the supply of ad tech services, analytics and digital tools used to facilitate the programmatic sale and purchase of digital advertising. By acquiring Fitbit, Google would acquire the database maintained by Fitbit about its users' health and fitness, and the technology to develop a database similar to Fitbit's one. The data collected via wrist-worn wearable devices appears at this stage of the commission's review of the transaction to be an important advantage in the online advertising markets.

Starting point is 00:11:40 By increasing the data advantage of Google in the personalization of the ads it serves via its search engine and displays on other internet pages, it would be more difficult for rivals to match Google's online advertising services. Thus, the transaction would raise barriers to entry and expansion for Google's competitors for those services to the ultimate detriment of advertisers and publishers that would face higher prices and have less choice, end quote. Microsoft has announced when its X-Cloud gaming service is launching, at least on Android. The D-Day is September 15th, launching on Android in 22 countries bundled with the Xbox Games Pass Ultimate subscription, which runs you $14.99 a month. So on September 15th, you can download an updated Xbox GamePass app, which will have game streaming as a part of it. There will be 100 plus games available to play via streaming, but do note that this is not launching that same day on iOS. In fact, we don't know when it might come to iOS, if ever, quoting The Verge.

Starting point is 00:12:50 It's our ambition to scale cloud gaming through Xbox GamePass available on all devices, but we have nothing further to share at this time regarding iOS, says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to the Verge. The lack of iOS support at launch will be disappointing to iPhone and iPad owners, but not exactly surprising. While Microsoft has been testing XCloud on iOS, the company previously revealed its testing was limited due to Apple's App Store policies. Microsoft hasn't revealed which Apple policies are preventing XCloud from launching on iOS, but Google's Stadia service is also not available on iPhones or iPads. Valve's SteamLink app took nearly a year for Apple to approve, even though

Starting point is 00:13:27 it primarily streams games from your home PC. Apple has also faced questions over its 30% cut of in-app purchases and strict app store policies from the House Judiciary Committee recently as part of a tech antitrust hearing, end quote. I don't usually cover their earnings, but video game maker take two interactive beat expectations in their fiscal Q1 with revenue up 54% year over year, which is even more impressive when you learn that the company did not launch any new games during that self-same quarter. So chalk this up to another sector doing. well in the COVID era, I guess. I mean, it does help that Take 2 games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 still sell amazingly well years after launching, but also Grock this.

Starting point is 00:14:21 To date, Take 2 said that lifetime sales of GTA 5 are at 135 million units, including 5 million in the first fiscal quarter. Red Dead Red Dead Redemption 2 is at 32 million, NBA 2K20 is at 14 million units. Borderlands 3 has sold 10.5 million and the Outer Worlds has sold 2.8 million. Daily active users for NBA 2K were up 82% from a year ago. In the first fiscal quarter, Red Dead Redemption 2 sold twice as many copies as it did in the same period a year ago. You can chalk those results up to gamers playing more during the pandemic. Social Points Dragon City and Monster Legends, mobile games helped drive it to 54% revenue growth in the quarter compared to a year ago. quote. But also, things are just turning up millhouse for the gaming industry generally because

Starting point is 00:15:12 it seems to be an open secret in the gaming industry that the next gen games for the next gen consoles might be getting price hikes, generally in the range of $10 per game. For example, take two did confirm that it will price NBA 2K21 at $70, which is $10 more than what NBA 2K20 runs you. quoting games industry. biz. During today's earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that it would be deciding and announcing pricing of next generation software on a title by title basis, implying that not all next generation games would necessarily get the $10 price hike. There hasn't been a price increase for frontline titles for a really long time, despite the fact that it costs a great deal more to make those titles, Zelnik replied.

Starting point is 00:15:58 And we think with the value we offer consumers, and the kind of experience you can really only have on these next generation consoles, that the price is justified. But it's easy to say that when you're delivering extraordinary quality, and that's what our company prides itself on doing, end quote. So if you're a gamer, I just wanted to put you on notice that things are about to get more expensive. And finally today, you know our good friend,

Starting point is 00:16:28 the hashtag inventor and general product guru Chris Messina, how he's officially the ombudsman for this podcast. Being an ombudsman means you advocate on behalf of the audience of a publication, but also you hold the publication to account. Well, Chris is officially holding me to account. You might remember this segment from the July 6th episode where we discussed a new algorithm developed by researchers at Harvard that claimed to be able to detect COVID outbreaks. Looking ahead, it predicts that Nebraska and New Hampshire are likely to see cases increase in the coming weeks if no further measures are taken, despite case counts being currently flat, end quote. So there you go. Someone out there listening remind me in three weeks to check

Starting point is 00:17:19 on Nebraska and New Hampshire numbers, and we can see together how well this prediction algorithm performs. So Brian, as the TechMeme Ride Home Ombudsman, I wanted to hold you accountable. As three weeks ago, you broadcast that little clip where you covered an algorithm that was looking across social media, Google searches, and location data provided by mobile phones to determine the possible spread of infections from the coronavirus. And I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look three weeks later at how that algorithm performed. So what I found in combining results from RT.Live as well as COVID tracking, the COVID tracking project, was that it's a bit of a wash. I would definitely say that there are results at a Nebraska that make it look as though

Starting point is 00:18:11 there is a spike happening. On July 7th, there was 117 positive tests with an RT value of 1.10. And now, as recent as August 1st, there are 445 positive tests with an RT of 1.13. So definitely some movement up into the right there, especially if you take a look at the COVID tracking project. New Hampshire, meanwhile, which is the state that I was born in and grew up in, is actually seeing a bit of a downward trajectory. So on July 7th, there were only 17 positive tests with an RT value of 1.05. And as of August 1st, there were 69 with an RT value of 1.03. So both are increasing. Both are going up. If you look at the charts, it definitely seems as though hospitalizations and other types of COVID-related complications are occurring in Nebraska, but not so much in New Hampshire.

Starting point is 00:19:05 So I think the jury's out on this one. Hard to say if this new algorithm actually is doing what it claims to be able to do. Thank you, Chris, for following up on that. and thank you for keeping me honest. What should we do if my self-driving by 2020 bet doesn't pay off by the end of the year if I don't end up getting a burrito delivered to me for lunch via an ankle robot? How should we settle that wager officially, Mr. Ombudsman? Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/04 – Last Hurrah? iMacs Get A Major Update

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