Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/20 - Is Apple TV+ DOA?

Episode Date: August 20, 2019

Twitter suspends a bunch of China-linked accounts, is Apple TV+ dead on arrival? 23 towns in Texas are hit with ransomware, and why isn’t Alexa in your car? Sponsors: DataTribe.com/challenge PixelUnion.net BRD's Longread About Libra Links: Information operations directed at Hong Kong (Twitter) Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From China (Facebook) Updating our advertising policies on state media (Twitter) Apple Targets Apple TV+ Launch in November, Weighs $9.99 Price After Free Trial (Bloomberg) Apple splashes $6bn on new shows in streaming wars (Financial Times) States to Move Forward With Antitrust Probe of Big Tech Firms (WSJ) Sony to acquire Insomniac Games (Polygon) Over 20 Texas local governments hit in 'coordinated ransomware attack' (ZDNet) The first Lightning security key for iPhones is here, and it works with USB-C, too (The Verge) Amazon Wants to Put Alexa in Cars. Google and Apple Are There Already (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the TechMeme right home for Tuesday, August 20th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough today. Twitter suspends a bunch of China-linked accounts. Is Apple TV plus dead on arrival? 23 towns in Texas are hit with ransomware. and why isn't Alexa in your car? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Late yesterday, Twitter announced it had proactively suspended around 200,000, what it calls,

spam accounts alongside an initial ban of 936 active accounts, which Twitter alleges, were involved in a state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong. Quote, this disclosure consists of 936 accounts originating from within the People's Republic of China. Overall, these accounts were deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong, including undermining the legitimacy and political positions of the protest movement on the ground. Based on our intensive investigations, we have reliable evidence to support that this is a coordinated state-backed operation. Specifically, we identified large clusters of accounts, behaving in a coordinated manner to amplify messages related to the Hong Kong protests.

As Twitter is blocked in PRC, many of these accounts access Twitter using VPNs. However, some accounts access Twitter from specific unblocked IP addresses originating in mainland China. The accounts we are sharing today represent the most active portion of this campaign. A larger spammy network of approximately 200,000 accounts, many created following our initial suspensions, were proactively suspended before they were. substantially active on the service, end quote. Hot on the heels of that announcement, Facebook announced, that it was removing seven pages, three groups, and five accounts originating in China, that they, again, allege were involved

in coordinated inauthentic behavior regarding the events in Hong Kong. And guess what? This sounds like this was all related, quoting Facebook. Based on a tip shared by Twitter about activity they found on their platform, we conducted and internal investigation into suspected, coordinated inauthentic behavior in the region and identified this activity. We will continue monitoring and will take action if we find additional violations. We've shared our analysis with law enforcement and industry partners, end quote. But back to Twitter, which also announced that going forward, it will no longer accept

advertising from state-controlled news media entities. Quote, today we are updating our advertising policies with respect to state media. Going forward, we will not accept advertising from state-controlled news media entities. Any affected accounts will be free to continue to use Twitter to engage in public conversation, just not our advertising products, end quote. Worth noting that Twitter says that this policy change does not apply to tax payer-funded entities. As James Ball tweeted, quote, some poor senior execs at the BBC and Channel 4 have possibly had to talk very quickly to explain to social networks that publicly owned media and state-controlled media are not the same thing, end quote.

All of the pieces are coming together for the streaming wars to kick off officially in November. Sources are telling Bloomberg that Apple is planning to roll out Apple TV Plus by November and is considering pricing the streaming video subscription service at $9.99 a month after a free trial period. With its first foray into video subscriptions, Apple is weighing different release strategies for shows. The company is considering offering the first three episodes of some programs, followed by weekly installments, the people said. Netflix tends to release whole seasons at once for binging, while AT&T's HBO and Disney's Hulu often. release episodes weekly. The service will launch globally in over 150 countries. Apple TV Plus will be one of five major digital subscription services in Apple's portfolio, along with Apple Music,

the upcoming Apple Arcade Gaming Service, Apple News Plus, and ICloud storage subscriptions. The company also generates recurring revenue from products like AppleCare, extended customer service, and its bank-operated iPhone upgrade program. It will also likely start pulling in revenue from the Apple card, which began rolling out earlier this month, end quote. So I'm happy to hear counterarguments about this, but I'm really struggling to get bullish on this Apple TV Plus. Put me in the same camp as James McLeod, who tweeted, quote, more expensive than Disney Plus with a vastly smaller library of programs that nobody has heard of.

This will go great, end quote. However, counter argument. Apple seems pretty committed to this. Sources are telling the financial times that Apple has committed more than $6 billion towards the production of original shows and movies, many featuring huge and read expensive names. I found this detail interesting. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars alone on a star-studded series featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Correll called The Morning Show. According to people familiar with the matter, that amounts to a higher price per episode than Game of Thrones, which reportedly cost $15 million for each episode of its final season. The morning show ranks alongside science fiction drama C, which features Aquaman star Jason Mamoa, and is written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight as one of the most expensive shows on Apple's slate.

Apple is looking to build a library of original programming to take on more established competitors, such as Netflix. While Apple's budget remains well below Netflix's expected cash content spending of $15 billion this year, its more generous payment terms are helping it to win deals in Hollywood. Unlike Netflix, which often pays content creators over several years, Apple pays earlier in the production process once certain milestones are hit, according to people familiar with its approach, end quote. And speaking of the Apple card, FYI, it is now available to all iPhone users in the United States. And as a sweetener to get you to give it a try today, there's a special 3% cashback offer for Uber and Uber Eats.

Until now, the announced 3% cashback offer was only available for Apple purchases. But Apple says it will periodically extend this to other third-party merchants. Apparently, additional third-party merchants will be added to the 3% cashback program in the coming months, and one imagines that this will not be a permanent thing. More likely, Apple will be rotating partners in and out of the 3% cashback tier. Sony Interactive Entertainment is acquiring Insomniac Games, developer of the PS4 hit Marvel's Spider-Man. Insomniac will join PlayStation's worldwide studios, quote, Insomnia was founded in 1994 as Extreme Sopniac. software by Ted Price, who is still the company's CEO today. The studio has been independent until now, although it is best known as the creator of franchises that debuted exclusively

on PlayStation platforms, like Ratchet and Clank, Spyro the Dragon, and Resistance. Non-Playstation titles from Insomniac include 2016's Edge of Nowhere and the upcoming Stormland on Oculus Rift. The studio released Song of the Deep in 2016 on PS4, Windows PC, and Xbox 1 and fuse in 2013 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Insomniak's biggest project outside of Sony was the 2014 Xbox 1 exclusive Sunset Overdrive, which was later ported to PC, end quote. The FTC chairman Joseph Simons said yesterday that he intends to complete the Facebook antitrust probe that the agency is conducting before the 2020 election.

He said all options for remedies are on the table, including divestitures of properties. But he also added that Mark Zuckerberg's mad dash to integrate all of Facebook's units into one was complicating matters. Quote, if they're maintaining separate business structures and infrastructure, it's much easier to have a divestiture in that circumstance than in where they're completely enmeshed and all the eggs are scrambled, he told the financial times. Mr. Simons declined to discuss the specifics of what the FTC was investigating in Facebook's case,

but said the agency's review of past mergers was focused on whether deals were designed to stamp out possible core business competitors. He pointed to the Instagram acquisition as an example, saying the FTC would not be looking at, quote, whether they were going to succeed so much as a photo service, but whether they were going to develop into something that actually could challenge the Facebook platform, end quote. The FTC previously cleared both the WhatsApp and Instagram acquisitions by Facebook. Mr. Simons acknowledged that it would be challenging for the agency to ask a court to reverse a merger that it had approved. Quote, yeah, it's not easy, he said. On the other hand, you might have a situation where you have additional evidence that the company was engaged in a program to basically snuff out its competitors through a process of acquisition, end quote. Also, both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that a group of states' attorneys general are likely to launch their own coordinators. formal probe into big tech next month. Any investigation by the attorneys general would likely

dovetail with the investigations launched by the FTC and Justice Department. If you know your history, a similar thing occurred during the Microsoft antitrust brouhaha in the late 90s and early 2000s. Lots of you have been tweeting this at me, and yes, I am aware. 23 local governments in Texas have been hit with what appears to be a coordinated ransomware attack, quoting ZDNet. The attack took place on Friday morning, August 16th, U.S. time, when several smaller local Texas governments reported problems with accessing their data to the Texas Department of Information Resources or DIR. DIR officials did not publish a list of impacted local governments.

On Friday, the agency couldn't provide an exact number of impacted entities, but a day later, DIR said the number is 20. Quote, it appears all entities that were actually or potentially impacted have been identified and notified, DIR said. Responders are actively working with these entities to bring their systems back online, end quote. You should use two-factor authentication, they say. You shouldn't use text messages as the second factor, they say. Text messages are okay, but not the most secure. Google Authenticator and Authie are better, they say.

But they also say again and again, the most. secure two-factor authentication is to use a physical security key as the second factor. Problem has been, until now, physical security keys tended to only work on traditional computers. Well, not anymore. Today, Ubiko, maker of the gold standard Ubiqui security key, has launched the Ubiki 5CI, which has a USBC end and a lightning port end, as well as native support for iOS right out of the box so you can now use a physical key to secure logins on your iPhone. The new Ubikee 5CI costs $70, which is a bit much, but you do get support for popular password programs like LastPass and OnePass as well.

Quoting the Verge, that means you may not have to remember your password for your bank ever again. Just plug the Ubiki into your iPhone and use it to log into the OnePassword app and get that bank password. At launch, it'll support these well-known password managers and single sign-on tools. One-Pass, BitWarden, Dashlane, Adaptive, LastPass, and Octa. And when using the Brave browser for iOS, the Ubiqui 5CI can be used as an easier way to log into Twitter, GitHub, OnePasswords, web app, and a couple of other services. Notably, the 5CI doesn't work with the newest iPad pros at all, despite having a USBC connector that fits. And you can't just plug the lightning side of the 5CI into an iPhone and expect it to work with any service that supports the Fido authentication protocol.

Our passwordless future isn't here just yet. Ubiko tells the verge that services have to individually add support for lightning connectors on the 5CI into their apps, end quote. And actually, I shouldn't blanket say that this is the first mobile solution for security key. because Google's $50 tightened security keys have USBA and USBC adapters and NFC and Bluetooth, and it all works with Android. And actually, if you're on Android 7 or higher, you can already use your actual phone as a physical security key as well. For years, Apple and Google have been battling to become the digital platform inside of our cars, a platform that can control everything from navigation to entertainment.

But if you think about it, voice assistants are perfect for cars, right? Because they're hands free. And of course, Apple has Siri integrated into their car play. And of course, there's Google Assistant. Well, what about Amazon? Why wouldn't Amazon make a play for cars? Turns out that Amazon, if you weren't aware, is making a play for cars, as Bloomberg points out, and recently scored some wins when Audi and BMW agreed to include Alexa,

in some of their car models by default. Quote, introduced almost a year ago and shipped to the first invited customers in January, the sometimes buggy echo auto is the most visible element so far of Amazon's

ambition to take Alexa on the road. While colonizing the car probably won't generate much in the way of revenue at first, just being there would help Amazon position itself for a coming era of voice-based services. Quote, Amazon wants to get into the car

in a big way, says Mike Ramsey, a senior research director at Gartner, who tracks the auto industry. They sense that there is a big opportunity, end quote. The Bloomberg article points out that Amazon's biggest hurdle here, as ever, is that they don't have a phone platform of their own. Yes, once again, I invoke the fire phone fiasco. The bottom line is, most people would just prefer a system that works off their existing smartphones at hand, as opposed to having to port things like playlists, contacts, and maps over to a standalone

own system. But Amazon is smartly positioning itself as an alternative for automakers who fear being squeezed between Apple and Google. But what really hasn't helped Amazon so far is that the Echo Auto has pretty universally garnered a reputation for being half-baked and poorly designed. It tells you something that Amazon has turned off reviews for the Echo Auto on Amazon's own website. That is all for today. As always, I'm Brian McCullough. Follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC. Be excellent to yourselves and each other. Talk to you tomorrow.