Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/25 – Fitbit’s Sense Smartwatch and Versa 3

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

A whole bunch of new hardware gadgetry today. New Fitbits. New smart locks. New Roomba capabilities. Also, rumors of a new Nintendo Switch console with serious spec upgrades. A judge hands a lifeline to the Unreal Engine. 3nm Silicon is coming fast. And Bill Gurley gives us a timely background on SPACs. Sponsors: ExtraHop.com/techmeme TinyCapital.com Links: Fitbit unveils Sense and Versa 3 smartwatches with Google Assistant (VentureBeat) Level’s latest smart lock can be unlocked with a touch (The Verge) Nintendo Plans Upgraded Switch Console and Major Games for 2021 (Bloomberg) Nintendo reportedly releasing upgraded Switch next year (The Verge) Epic judge will protect Unreal Engine — but not Fortnite (The Verge) iRobot is giving its vacuum cleaners a new AI-powered brain (The Verge) TSMC Details 3nm Process Technology: Full Node Scaling for 2H22 Volume Production (AnandTech) Going Public Circa 2020; Door #3: The SPAC (Above The Crowd/Bill Gurley) 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, August 25th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, a whole bunch of new hardware gadgetry. New Fitbits, new smart locks, new Roomba capabilities. Also, rumors of a new Nintendo Switch console with serious spec upgrades. A judge hands a lifeline to the Unreal engine. Three nanometer silicon

is coming fast and Bill Gurley gives us a timely backgrounder on specs. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. You know what? I feel like we've been covering the same three controversies for the last several weeks in a row. So before we get to the usual Mishigas, let's cover some product launches and some product rumors, shall we? Just for a little change of pace, I know I could use it. First up, remember wearables. Fitbit has unveiled three new wearables today. The first is the $330 cents smartwatch with ECG and a sensor for detecting stress. The second is the $230 versus 3 with GPS and Google Assistant built in. And the third is the Fitbit Inspire 2 for 100 bucks. All are available for pre-order today and all will be shipping in late September, quoting Venture Beat.

Fitbit Sense replaces Fitbit Ionic to become the company's most advanced health smartwatch with an electrodermal activity sensor or EDA for managing stress, heart rate tracking, a new ECG app, an on-risk skin temperature sensor, and Google Assistant. Fitbit also introduced Fitbit Versa 3 with GPS and Google Assistant, plus Fitbit Inspire 2 with battery life up to 10 days. Fitbit claims the Sense and Versa 3 offer six days of battery life. The company is taking a big risk with today's launch by getting rid of physical buttons on the new devices. That hasn't worked well for wearables in the past. Small touch screens suck.

Maybe Fitbit is happy to experiment since it doesn't know what Google will ultimately do with its products. More on that in a second. Every story has a coronavirus angle nowadays, and this is no exception. Fitbit argues that wearables may be able to play an important role in the early detection of infectious diseases. The company last week highlighted its COVID-19 study of over 100,000 Fitbit users, which found its algorithm can detect nearly 50% of COVID-19 cases a day before the onset of symptoms with 70% specificity. Changes in some of the metrics in Fitbit premium, breathing rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability can be detected simultaneously with the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and sometimes, even before. A Fitbit premium subscription costs $10 per month. Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 come with a six-month trial while Inspire 2 owners get a 12-month trial, end quote. Yes, though, as mentioned, the whole Google

acquisition sort of hangs over Fitbit like a Paul. No one knows if the acquisition will be allowed to go through, and poor Fitbit is caught in the middle. Still, able to release hardware is a good sign, though, I guess, right? And how about some smart home products? A company called Level Home has unveiled Level Touch, a $329 home kit-enabled smart lock that can be unlocked with a touch of your finger, or of course the included NFC access cards. The coolest thing about the Level Touch is that it's a smart lock that doesn't look like a smart lock, which maybe makes it more secure, right? Quoting the Verge. Level is a relatively new company in the smart home scene, but today it's announcing its second product of the year, the Level Touch. The touch uses the same clever engineering and sleek design of the level bolt, but packages it

into a full lock replacement and doesn't rely on any existing deadbolt parts you may have. It costs $329 and is available in a variety of finishes from Level's website starting today. Though the touch uses the same interior mechanism as the bolt, it comes with a front bezel with a keyhole and a back bezel with a traditional lever, effectively replacing all of the parts of your door lock By expanding to the outside components, Level is able to add capacitive touch to unlock or lock the door, authenticating over Bluetooth LE through the phone in your pocket. You can walk up to the door and just touch the outside of the lock to have it unlock for you.

Even though the touch is wholly replacing the deadbolt in your door, it maintains Level's sleek design and ethos that smart technology should blend in with normal life. It does not look like a smart lock from the outside or the inside. There are no hefty battery backs or motors glommed onto the air. inside of the door, nor are there any keypads or fingerprint scanners on the outside. Instead, all of the electronics, motors, battery, and smarts are embedded inside the lock mount and the deadbolt itself out of sight. It is still compatible with the majority of deadbolts in U.S.

homes and occupies the same size as a standard deadbolt. Level even boasts that you can install the touch with just a single screwdriver in as little as 10 minutes, no drilling or routing required. The lock itself is made from stainless steel and level claims it is certified to meet the highest industry standard for lock security and reliability. The standard lever on the inside and keyhole on the outside mean you can also use it just like the deadbolt you currently have. In addition to the new touch controls, the touch lock also supports NFC access cards, two of which are included with the lock. You can program the cards using the level app on your phone and give them access to multiple entrances or homes. You can also remotely wipe the card or

revoke access if it gets lost. It's not unlike the NFC guest key the Tesla Model 3 uses, end quote. IRobot is updating its Rumba vacuum cleaners, some of them at least, with AI-based software that will add specific spot cleaning, event-based automation, and more, quoting the verge. Not only will compatible Rumba's map your home, they'll now use machine vision and built-in cameras to identify specific pieces of furniture in your house like couches, tables, and kitchen counters. As the robot logs these objects, it'll make suggestions to the user to add them to its internal map as clean zones. Specific areas of your house, you can direct your Roomba to clean, either via the app or a connected digital assistant like Alexa.

Quote, so right after the kids eat is the perfect time to say clean under the dining room table because there's shrapnel everywhere under there, but you don't need to clean the whole kitchen. Irobot's chief product officer Keith Hartsfeld told the verge. In order to create these machine vision algorithms, I robot collected tens of thousands of images from inside employees' homes to learn what furniture looks like when you're scooting around the floor. If your robot is collecting this data, it has a bright green sticker on, so you don't forget and start wandering around with no pants on, says Angle. He boasts that the company's fleet of data collecting vehicles is probably second only to Tesla's. This functionality will be supported by a range

of new features. In addition to clean zones, Roombas will also identify keep-out zones. If the robot keeps on getting stuck on a tangle of cables under your TV stand, for example, it'll suggest to users to mark this as a keep-out zone to avoid in future. As with clean zones, these areas can be customized in the app. Event-based automation will also be an option. If you want your Roomba to do a quick vacuum when you leave the house, you can connect the app to an August smart lock or a location service like Life 360. When you walk out the front door, it'll know to start cleaning. Other new features include customizable preset cleaning routines, recommended cleaning schedules based on users' usage, and seasonal cleaning schedules, such as more frequent vacuuming

when a pet is shedding or during allergy season, end quote. And now for the biggest news of the day, sources are telling Bloomberg that Nintendo plans to debut an upgraded model of its Switch console in 2021, possibly with 4K graphics, more computing power and a lineup of new games. Quote, the specifications of the new machine have yet to be finalized, although the Kyoto-based company has looked into including more computing power and 4K high-definition graphics, people briefed on the strategy, told Bloomberg News,

asking not to be identified because it's private. Nintendo faces stiff competition for gamers' attention this fall as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are set to arrive in time for the shopping season. The release of upgraded switches would be coupled with or followed by a slewled, of new games from Nintendo itself and related outside studios, the people said. Those games would address a wide range of players from casual gamers seeking small doses of escapism to more devoted fans putting in marathon gaming sessions. The focus on next year's pipeline explains Nintendo's relatively quiet software release

schedule so far this year, the people said, end quote. The Verge notes this, quote, That Switch hardware is based around Nvidia's Tegra X-1 system on a chip, which was first announced more than five years ago. mobile processor technology has advanced a lot since, so there's certainly room for a major switch speed boost, but it would likely require a new custom design from Nvidia. While the X-1 did make it into Google's PixelC tablet as well as Nvidia's own shield set-top boxes, the company no longer makes general-purpose mobile systems on a chip for third-party manufacturers, end quote.

All I know is, in the McCullough household, if a sequel to Zelda Breath of the Wild comes out exclusively on any new hardware, that would basically require us to upgrade hardware. That's how committed Penny is to all things, High Rule. As promised, now on to the ongoing messes involving Epic Games, Apple, TikTok, President Trump, etc. First, a judge has denied Epic's motion to restore Fortnite to the App Store, but has also ordered Apple not to block the Unreal Engine. So Lifeline for Unreal, but the main battle for Epic will go on as a full hearing is scheduled

for September 28th. Quoting the Verge. The court finds that with respect to Epic Games's motion as to its games, including Fortnite, Epic Games has not yet demonstrated irreparable harm. The current predicament appears to be of its own making, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers wrote, saying that Epic, quote, strategically chose to breach its agreement with Apple, end quote, and thus disturb the status quo. But Rogers wrote, maintaining that status quo is also why she's ruling that Apple can't cut off access to the Unreal Engine right now. There, it was Apple. who, quote, has chosen to act severely by impacting both third-party app developers as well as Epic's

reputation by threatening the Unreal Engine. Quote, Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders, Rogers wrote. Meanwhile, in its suit challenging President Trump's executive order banning them, TikTok casually mentioned that in the U.S., TikTok had 91.9 million monthly action. users in June. That's up from a mere 11.3 million miles in January of 2018 and up from only 40 million miles just this past October. Globally, TikTok had around 700 million miles in July. So in case you're forgetting the stakes, TikTok is a big deal. Basically, one in three Americans use TikTok every month. TSM says it's three nanometer process for its next generation

silicon chips will hit volume production in 2022. Meanwhile, it's 5 nanometer N5 chips, which should ship in products later this year, use 30% less power than the N7 chips. So all one can say is Intel continues to fall further and further behind, quoting Anantec. Starting off with TSM's upcoming N5 process node, which represents its second generation deep ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet process node after the rarely used N7 plus node. TSM has been in mass production for several months now, as we're expecting silicon shipping to customers at this moment, with consumer products shipping this year. Apple's next generation systems on a chip being the likely first candidates for the node. Today's biggest news was TSM's disclosure on their next big leap past

the N5 process node generation family, which is the 3-nometer N3 mode. We've heard that TSM had been working on defining the node back last year with progress going well. Contrary to Samsung's 3-nanometer process node, which makes use of GAA or gate all-around transistor structures, TSM will instead be sticking with FinFET transistors and relying on innovative features to enable them to achieve the full node scaling that N3 promises to bring. Compared to its N5 node, N3 promises to improve performance by 10 to 15% at the same power levels or reduce power by 25 to 30% at the same transistor speeds. Furthermore, TSM promises a logic area density improvement of 1.7x, meaning that we'll see a

0.58x scaling factor between N5 and N3 logic, end quote. Finally today, I only just mentioned specs for the first time on this podcast yesterday, but none other than Bill Gurley has a timely essay out, lauding the rise of special purpose acquisition companies, as providing improved terms for companies wanting to go public, as well as an overall lower cost of capital as company underpricing during traditional IPOs just continues to suck. In case you don't grok what that means, traditional IPOs with banks as underwriters tend to have first-day pops, right? We report on those. Those first-day pops make headlines. But they also represent money left on the table in terms of capital a company could have raised,

which you would think is the main point of an IPO, but then if that's what you think, you don't understand how Wall Street works. Gurley says the traditional IPO process is fundamentally flawed. On average, a company going public is underpricing by around 31%. In other words, most companies could have raised a third more money than they end up doing via traditional IPOs. According to Gurley, SPACs fix all this, quote, There are two key things to understand. First, there have been a record number of SPACs raised and at a much higher capital raise per SPAC. As a result, the gross dollar sitting in SPAC is over 30 billion, and will likely finish the year over 300% higher than any previous year. The second key thing to understand is that this abundant supply of SPACs, arguably an oversupply,

is leading to competition. This competition is leading to improving terms for the targeted company and an overall lower cost of capital. So while the underpricing and true cost of capital of a traditional IPO is trending worse, the economics behind SPACs are actually improving. This is why SPACs are a truly legitimate and preferable doorway into the public markets. Spacks have a much lower cost of capital versus a standard IPO. Even before negotiating terms, the SPAC is a cheaper way to go public because of systemic underpricing.

When you are able to improve the terms, it becomes a clear no-brainer. Spacks also have access to primary capital, which is an advantage versus today's version of a direct listing. With a SPAC, the company has much, much more control. The company negotiates the company value slash price directly with the single sponsor, as well as many other aspects of the transaction. If you like being in control, this is a good way to go. And SPACs are a much faster way to become a public company. The SPAC door is much faster than an IPO or a direct listing, which both take six to seven months from beginning to end. With a SPAC, you could be public in two months from when you start the process, assuming you have your house in order, end

quote. He ends by prophesizing that more and more companies will be doing SPACs in the coming years. So it's funny, I just updated the latest version of iOS on my phone, and now it says on my watch that my watch can't be updated to the latest version because it's full, which is odd because I have basically nothing on my watch, like maybe only eight apps in total, way less than like, I don't know, 100 megabytes of data on there according to the watch app on my phone. I mean, I don't have anything like Spotify or Overcast on there, which would upload media onto the watch or something. This is a relatively new watch at Series 4, so does that seem odd to any of you? Like, I can't upgrade the system software because the system software is taking up all of the space on the device.

I haven't had a chance to look into this yet. Let me know if any of you have experienced anything similar. Anyway, talk to you tomorrow.