Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/10 – iPhone To Get An Apple Watch-Like Always-On Screen?

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Time for iPhone rumor season to hit fever pitch. Will the next iPhone take a page out of the Apple Watch’s book when it comes to screens? Has Apple run afoul of US labor law? The Crypto fix fails in the Senate, so now folks have to hope for reconciliation with the House. An interesting raise that is up 5X in 5 months. And a possible explanation for the Buy Now Pay Later craze. Sponsors: Quantummetric.com/podoffer offer code Podcastcode SetApp.com Links: Apple Readies New iPhones With Pro-Focused Camera, Video Updates (Bloomberg) APPLE KEEPS SHUTTING DOWN EMPLOYEE-RUN SURVEYS ON PAY EQUITY — AND LABOR LAWYERS SAY IT’S ILLEGAL (The Verge) Bitcoin Lobby Loses: Senate Rejects Revised Crypto Tax Provisions in Infrastructure Bill (Decrypt) Google’s new Titan security key lineup won’t make you choose between USB-C and NFC (The Verge) Crypto Platform FalconX Quintuples Valuation to $3.75 Billion (Bloomberg) Square's $29 billion deal for buy-now, pay-later player Afterpay is the starting gun for the race to build a money super app (Insider) Exclusive: Salesforce enters the streaming wars (Axios) 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 TechMexam. right home for Tuesday, August 10th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Time for iPhone rumor season to hit fever pitch. Will the next iPhone take a page out of the Apple Watches book when it comes to

screens? Has Apple run afoul of U.S. labor law? The crypto fix fails in the Senate, so now folks have hopes for reconciliation with the House. An interesting raise that is up 5x in five months and a possible explanation for the buy now, pay later craze. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. We're already almost halfway through August, which means it's that time of year when a young man's fancy turns lightly to thoughts of iPhone rumors. A new iPhone reveal is mere weeks away. So this is really the meat of the Apple Rumors season. And helpfully, Mark German has a summary look at what he says we can expect from iPhones this year. A modest iPhone update is coming, according to German, with a smaller notch being the biggest. design change, faster refresh rate for the screen, a lot of camera upgrades, including pro-res recording and video portrait mode, and one outlying possibility, quote, the new iPhones will include a faster A-15 chip and a smaller notch, also known as the display cutout, in addition to new screen technology that could enable faster refresh rates

for smoother scrolling. Apple first added portrait mode to the iPhone 7 plus in 2016, and it quickly became a fan favorite. The feature can put a person in sharp focus while blurring the background in what is known as a bochia effect. For the new iPhones, Apple plans to add the same technique to video with a feature internally dubbed cinematic video. Like with all still photos, the iPhone's depth sensor will create the effect and allow users to change the amount of blur after recording.

A new pro-res video recording feature will let iPhone users capture clips in a higher quality format that gives editors more control during post-production. The format is used by professional video editors in the film industry and isn't normally intended for the mass market, in part because of its large file sizes. ProRes will record in either HD and 4K resolutions on the next iPhones. The ProRes feature would follow last year's edition of ProRaw, a higher-quality still photo file format that gives professional editors more control. Like with ProRaw, the ProRes video recording may be exclusive to the Pricier Pro models. Another feature will let users better control the look of colors and highlight. in their pictures. Users will be able to choose from several styles to apply to their photos,

including one for showing colors at either a warmer or cooler temperature while keeping whites neutral. Another option will add a more dramatic look with deeper shadows and more contrast, and the company is planning a more balanced style for showing shadows and true-to-life colors with a brighter appearance. The feature will differ from standard filters available in the iPhone's camera app since 2013 by precisely applying changes to objects and people across the photos using artificial intelligence rather than applying a single filter across the entire picture, end quote. As for that edge rumor, there is also whispers floating around that the new iPhone will also get some form of low power always on display. So a la the Apple Watch, you'd be able to see some

notifications, battery life, the clock, etc., without having to actually wake up your phone. which yeah, yeah, yeah, but you really want to get me with clickbait, feed me some rumors reassuring me we're actually going to get new MacBook pros with actual ports, as we're all so expecting. This first crossed my transom last week, but could Apple be running a foul of labor laws here in the U.S.? Labor lawyers think so, telling the verge that Apple has violated worker protections by shutting down three employee-run surveys on women and underrepresented minorities' pay equity. quoting the Verge. Apple insists it does not have a problem with pay inequality. Skeptical Apple

employees have been trying to verify that claim by sending out informal surveys on how much people make, particularly as it relates to women and underrepresented minorities. But the company has shut down three of those surveys citing stringent rules on how employees can collect data. Now multiple labor lawyers tell the verge the company may be violating worker protections. The surveys can be considered a form of labor organizing. Under U.S. law, employees have the right to discuss pay. Quote, Apple cannot bar its employees from discussing pay equity as it relates to protected classes, says Vincent P. White, a labor lawyer with White, Hilfordy, and Albanese. If they were, they could tell people not to talk about pronouns. The logical outgrowth of that doesn't even track.

I view their effort to shut this down as an act of retaliation, end quote. The first known survey began in the spring and asked people to volunteer salary information in addition to how they identify in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability. After about 100 responses, Apple's People Team, the company named for what is commonly called Human Resources, asked employees to take the survey down, saying the demographic questions constituted personally identifying information or PII. Last week, employees tried to start another pay equity survey, but were again told to take it down because it included a question on gender.

When they created a new survey without the gender question, the Apple people team allegedly said it had to be shut down because it was hosted on the company's corporate box account. Quote, this is like a 2021 version of a foreman on the docs telling people they can't compare their wages way back in the 1800s, says White. This isn't new. It's just the newest version of you can't talk about your pay, end quote. Update on that whole crypto concern in Congress. The latest cryptocurrency compromise amendment to the Senate's infrastructure bill failed to reach a vote after Senator Shelby filed an objection over. unrelated military spending. You can have all of the newfound lobbying power you want,

CryptoKitties, but Congress is going to Congress, right? Quoting DeCript. The original language of the bill changed tax reporting requirements to define certain actors involved in digital assets as brokers for tax purposes. This would require them to file 1099 tax forms with the IRS on behalf of customers, even if they did not have access to such information. After putting forth rival amendments last week, the senators behind those amendments agreed on a compromise on Monday morning. The Toomey, Warner, Loomis, Cinema, Portman Amendment made clear that non-custodial actors such as Bitcoin miners, validators of proof-of-stake networks, wallet providers, and protocol developers would not be included in the bill's reporting mandate. However, as debate on the infrastructure

bill had already closed on Sunday evening, the amendment could only be adopted into the bill by unanimous consent. A single nay would sink it and send the bill's original language forward for a vote tomorrow. Senators Pat Toomey, Cynthia Loomis, and Rob Portman spoke in favor of the compromise amendment, as did Senator Ted Cruz, who predicted some would speak in opposition. That didn't quite happen. Instead, Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama tried to piggyback consideration of his own amendment, which would have added $50 billion in military spending to the crypto amendment. Senator Toomey, who had risen to ask the room for unanimous consent, allowed it, but Senator Bernie Sanders would not. Senator Shelby then killed the cryptocurrency amendment, end quote.

Google has added NFC to its Titan security key lineup, with a USBC model now available for 35 bucks and a USBA model for 30 bucks. They've also discontinued the Bluetooth-based model, quoting the Verge. One of the biggest changes in Google's new lineup is an updated USB-EASB. key, which has added NFC support. Google's previous USBC option made in collaboration with Ubiko didn't support the wireless standard. Now the choice between USBC and A is easy, as there aren't features that one has that the other doesn't. It's simply a matter of what ports your computer has. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Ubiko was involved with the new key. According to Google's support document, its Titan security keys can be used

to protect your Google account as well as with third-party apps and services that support Fido standards such as one-password. They and other security keys from companies like Ubiko can act as second factors to secure your account even if an attacker obtains your username and password. They also fight back against phishing since they won't authenticate a login to a fake website that's trying to steal your credentials. The Titan Keys also work with Google's advanced protection program, which is designed to provide extra security to people whose accounts may be targeted. Google's current USBA security key already includes NFC and sells for $25. The USBA plus NFC key that Google lists in its blog post will sell for $30, but it comes with a USBC adapter. The USBA key

currently listed on the store doesn't include one unless bought as part of a sold-out bundle, according to Google's specs page, end quote. I'm putting the finishing touches on an interesting raises episode for Right Home Plus subscribers this weekend, but one overarching trend. to all of the trends that I've been trying to spot for you in terms of what sectors seem to be hot at the moment, is the idea of speed. Startups are hitting unicorn status in mere months now. It's not unusual for a startup to raise, say, a series A or B round, only to announce the next round at double the valuation a mere few months later. This one sort of takes the cake, though. Falcon X, a crypto exchange focused on institutional investors, has raised $210 million led by, who else,

Tiger Global, though others are involved, all at a $3.75 billion valuation, which means the value of Falcon X has gone up, get this, five-fold over five months, quoting Bloomberg. The company, which has been profitable for roughly a year, saw its revenue grow by a multiple of 30 times in the 12 months to June 30th, Chief Executive Officer Raku Yarlagata said, declining to provide specifics. He said, investors established conviction around the company in part due to its growth trajectory and gross. margin profile of close to 80%, a similar level to some enterprise software companies. The company's customer-triggered monthly transaction volume has reached over $10 billion, Yerla Gada said. Falcon X is able to provide clients, including hedge funds, venture funds, and payment providers with more reliable pricing due to its connectivity with over 100 venues, including cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase and FDX, proprietary trading firms and OTC desks,

he said. Erilegat has said Falcon X will spend its fresh funding on scaling up, including by hiring staff to further build its technical infrastructure, global expansion, especially in Asia, and launching products inspired by customer requests, such as a delayed settlement product, which allows institutions to settle in 20 business days. Falcon X doesn't itself take on exposure to market movements by over collateralizing loans and reserving the right to liquidate positions, he said, end quote. Again, earlier this year, Falcon X was valued at a mere $675 million, but I guess if we're going to use that old rubric of Uber for X, maybe think of Falcon X as Coinbase. But instead of focusing on the consumer, this is Coinbase but for institutions, which shouldn't Coinbase be that as well? In my search to understand the Buy Now pay later space, I ran across a new explanation in Business Insider. or again, it's just insider now, but I can't break that habit after 15 years. Anyway, this new explanation maybe plays into a different framework that we've been discussing in the past.

Calam Burroughs argues that Squares $29 billion deal for Buy Now Pay Later Player After Pay is the starting gun for a new race to build an Asian-style money super app. The U.S. is already the biggest market for Buy Now Pay Later globally and has been booming as COVID-19 pushes shoppers online. BNPL currently accounts for 2% of transactions in the U.S. and market share is expected to grow to 5% by 2024, according to financial firm FHIS. Square says the acquisition will bolster its relationships with online merchants and that adding BNPL into its services would boost how much consumers spend. Customers may make only one or two smallest transactions in their first year of BNPL use,

but this tends to increase over time. For the likes of Square, that means more transactions and more revenue. But the deal also signals a bigger battle to own a universal payment app, according to Simone Mancini, founder of Milan, Italy-based BNPL FinTech Scalape, quote, digital wallets will be bigger than credit cards, so these super apps want to bypass banks altogether, and there's a big opportunity there, he told Insider. The rationale makes sense for Square. They have a lot of strong bricks and mortar customers like coffee shops, but they have a lack of online coverage, so this is very complimentary for them

and reduces customer acquisition costs, end quote. After pay doubled. It's U.S. user base to 6.5 million users as of the end of June 2020. Since then, the company has grown to 16.5 million users, most of whom are young U.S. consumers. And the firm posted a 96% year-on-year growth in gross profits to $506 million for the year to June 30th, according to unaudited accounts in Square's presentation. By 2025, services like Clarnet and a firm could be processing one, trillion annually in gross merchandise volume, according to one estimate by CB Insights.

For context, online shopping is estimated to be worth $4 trillion globally right now. In short, it's too good a revenue opportunity to turn down for major players that want to become super apps. Square was reportedly up against at least five other potential acquirers for afterpay and pushed the deal through in just three months. With multiple players gunning to own online payments, there's likely to be more consolidation activity in the industry, according to Mancini, meaning M&A appetite may not stop with this deal, end quote. Yeah, it's funny to think that a lot of fintech, like Square and even Stripe, have gotten this far merely by disrupting credit cards and the banking industry at the margins.

Imagine if they could cut banks out of the entire stack, maybe piece by piece. Finally today, hey, why not? Everybody else is doing it. Salesforce is launching Salesforce Plus, a free streaming service aimed at, at business professionals with original programming from Salesforce and eventually its clients. Quoting Axios. Salesforce Plus, which will debut globally during Salesforce's annual megacconference Dreamforce in September will be available on-demand 24-7, but it will also feature live event programming starting

with Dreamforce. The company has hired around 50 editorial leads to help launch the service, including scriptwriters and broadcast producers. It plans to fill many more editorial roles in the months to come as it builds up its programming slate. More broadly, there are hundreds of people at Salesforce currently working on Salesforce Plus making marketing, product, and digital departments. More broadly, there are hundreds of people at Salesforce currently working on Salesforce Plus across marketing, product, and digital departments. For now, Franklin says the company has no

plans to sell ads around the content or charge for it, quote, will measure success by free subscribers and viewership, she says. It will launch with a sizable amount of paid promotion in September, end quote. Sonal, Marget, the world cries out for an A16Z plus. Nothing much for you today, though. I am still looking to talk to salespeople. No previous experience selling podcast ads required. I've even got a list of prospects for you to run down.

So get in touch at podcast at techmeme.com. If interested in learning more, talk to you tomorrow.