Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/31 – Windows 11 Will Launch Without Android Apps

Episode Date: August 31, 2021

Microsoft has missed the window for Windows 11 to support Android apps, at least at launch. Apple is getting into classical music and Amazon is going deeper into the red-hot audio space. Facebook turns the temperature down on politics. And a new initiative to get, especially younger technologists, to lend their expertise to the Federal Government. Sponsors: Metalab.com Vote for the first bracket in the World Cup of Entrepreneurs here Links: Windows 11 won’t include Android app support at launch (The Verge) Apple buys classical music streaming service Primephonic (The Verge) Scoop: Amazon quietly building live audio business (Axios) Scoop: Facebook's new moves to lower News Feed's political volume (Axios) Google, Apple Hit by First Law Threatening Dominance Over App-Store Payments (WSJ) Apple Plans to Add Satellite Features to iPhones for Emergencies (Bloomberg) White House launches US Digital Corps (FedScoop) 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 Tech meme right home for Tuesday, August 31st, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Microsoft has missed the window for Windows 11 to support Android apps, at least at launch. Apple is getting into classical music and Amazon is going deeper into the red hot audio space. Facebook turns the temperature down on politics in the news feed and a new initiative to get especially younger technologists to lend their expertise to the federal government. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. This is quite the omission, given that this was a headline feature or quite the miss, I guess, because they'll get there, they just missed a deadline. Microsoft was forced to admit that Windows 11 will not support Android apps at launch, which is due for October 5th.

Support for Android apps will likely arrive in 2022 at some point, quoting the verge. While Android apps running on Windows 11 is one of the big new features of the OS, Microsoft will only start. previewing this feature in the coming months. This likely means Android apps won't arrive on Windows 11 until 2022 as Microsoft tests the feature with Windows Insiders first before rolling it out generally months later. While Android apps won't be there on day one, Windows 11 will still include the promised Microsoft Teams integration, a new design with an updated start menu, snap layouts, groups, desktops for improved multitasking, and a greatly improved Microsoft store app. Microsoft announced today that Windows 11 will arrive on October 5th, and it will be available as a free upgrade for

eligible Windows 10 PCs. New PCs will get it first, followed by existing devices receiving the upgrade in the following weeks and months. Microsoft says it expects to offer all eligible Windows 10 PCs a free upgrade to Windows 11 by mid-2020, end quote. Apple has acquired the classical music streaming service, Prime Phonic, giving users six free months of Apple Music, and Apple also is going to launch its own classical music app, probably using Prime Phonic as the basis in 2022, quoting the Verge. Effective immediately, Prime Phonic is no longer accepting new customers, and the service as it exists today will shut down on September 7th. Apple says Prime Phonics' playlists and exclusive audio content will be first

to be integrated into Apple Music. Down the line, it'll add, quote, the best features of Prime Phonic, including better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits, end quote. In a show of how serious Apple is about appealing to classical fans, the company says, quote, a dedicated classical music app will launch next year that will use Prime Phonics, quote, classical user interface that fans have grown to love, end quote. Prime Fonic launched three years ago, and its team says this deal is about scale and reaching more listeners. As a classical only startup, we cannot reach the majority of global classical listeners, especially those that listen to many other musical genres as well. The company wrote in a note on its webpage,

we therefore concluded that in order to achieve our mission, we need to partner with a leading streaming service that encompasses all music genres and also shares our love for classical music, end quote. According to Prime Phonics FAQ, customers with an active subscription will receive a pro-rated refund. They'll also be getting a code to redeem six free month. months of Apple Music, end quote. Meanwhile, sources are telling Axios that Amazon is developing a live audio feature led by its music division with a focus on live music and potentially radio and podcasts. As with Amazon's efforts in podcasting and music subscriptions, the company sees live

audio as a way to bolster the types of content it can offer through its voice assistant, Alexa, and its smart speaker products. The effort, which is being led by Amazon's music division, includes paying podcast networks, musicians, and celebrities to use the feature for live conversations, shows, and events. The idea is that users could access live concerts or performances through their Amazon music accounts. The company is in touch with major record labels about live audio events with artists. The feature is being built to focus on live music, but the tech giant is also eyeing talk radio programs and podcasts as an extension to that effort, according to a source familiar with the plans. Axios has previously reported that,

Amazon is looking to invest in localized podcast content like news and sports. The company bought podcast subscription company Wondery for a reported value of $300 million last year. Amazon also plans to integrate live audio into its live video service Twitch, according to two sources, end quote. But along with all that, I mean, this kind of proves that the live audio space hype is real, right? Twitter has spaces, Facebook has its whole audio initiative. Spotify has its green room product. There's always Discord there in the background. And the app that started the hype in this space Clubhouse recently announced that users now create over 700,000 live audio rooms on the clubhouse platform each day, up from a mere 300,000 per day back in May.

Sources are also telling Axios that Facebook plans to downrank current events content, as well as political content, in the news feed. After users approved of tests that limited such content. Quote, moving forward, Facebook will expand some of its current news feed tests that put less emphasis on certain engagement signals like the probability that a user will share or comment on a post in its ranking algorithm. Instead, it will begin placing a higher emphasis on other types of user feedback like responses to surveys.

The company will also begin testing efforts to limit political content in several new countries, including Costa Rica, Sweden, Spain, and Ireland. Between the lines, these efforts are part of a gradual effort by Facebook to make its users' experiences less political and contentious. Earlier this year, the company began testing limiting political content in news feeds in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia. In January, it said it would stop providing recommendations for users to join civic and political groups. User feedback showed people liked these changes, end quote. Yeah, you think? I've wondered for a while now why Facebook hasn't done.

this more or done it sooner, if Facebook was still a place where I could just, you know, check in occasionally and see how my cousins are doing or see pictures from my college roommates' kids' t-ball games, I'd still go to Facebook more than once or twice a quarter or so. But the politics post 100% chased me off that platform. So if they went away, I would consider going back. I get that controversy drives engagement and no matter how much Facebook protests otherwise or denies it, engagement matters to them. They want engagement, but they surely also have data that would show them that if they turn the knobs back just a bit on the blood pressure boiling stuff, there's got to be a not insignificant percentage of folks

out there just like me that might get back into the numbing waters of the big blue app once again if all of the political posts weren't quite so, you know, all over. A couple of follow-up segments now to news from it was just yesterday, right? They did it. South Korea's National Assembly officially passed a bill that forces Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems in their app stores, quoting the Wall Street Journal. A bill passed Tuesday by South Korea's National Assembly is the first in the world to dent the tech giant's dominance over how apps on their platforms sell their digital goods. It will become law once signed by President Moon Jae-in, whose party strongly endorsed the legislation. The law amends South Korea's Telecommunications Business Act to prevent large app market operators from requiring the use of their own in-app purchasing systems.

It also bans operators from unreasonably delaying the approval of apps or delisting them from the marketplace, provisions meant to head off retaliation against app makers. Companies that failed to comply could be fined up to 3% of their South Korea revenue by the Korea Communications Commission, the country's media regulator, end quote. So here's a question I have, given what we learned yesterday about the app stores potentially having operating margins in the range of 60%. 3% of all revenue in terms of fines, but only in the South Korean market. Might that be a small enough consideration that Google and Apple might be like,

okay, fine, we'll pay that so we can keep doing what we want everywhere else in the world? And sources are telling Mark German that Apple's planned satellite capabilities for the iPhone are focused on emergencies, enabling texts and crisis reports in areas without cellular coverage. So, as I said yesterday, not their own dedicated Apple cell service, not yet at least. But also, maybe not ever. Quote, Apple has been working on satellite technology for years with a team exploring the concept since at least 2017, Bloomberg has reported. Recent reporting has led to conjecture that the iPhone will become something akin to a satellite phone freeing users from having to rely on cell networks. But Apple's plan is initially more limited in scope, according to the person with the focus on helping customers handle crisis scenarios.

And though the next iPhone could have the hardware needed for satellite communications, the features are unlikely to be ready before next year, said another person who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't yet public. The first component of this new initiative dubbed emergency message via satellite will let users text emergency services and contacts over a satellite network when there's no cell signal available. That feature will be integrated into the messages app as a third protocol alongside the standard SMS and iMessage and appear with gray message bubbles instead of green or blue. The second feature will be a tool to report major emergencies such as plane crashes and sinking ships also using satellite networks. The texting via satellite tool, code named Stewie inside Apple, will restrict messages to a shorter length. The texts will automatically push through to an emergency contact's phone, even if the Do Not Disturb setting is on. One planned design will let a user send the message by typing emergency SOS, where they would usually input a contact name. In addition to delivering text,

the service may eventually be able to handle some phone calls too. Such an option will be useful in areas such as mountains or remote lakes, where 4G or 5G coverage may be unavailable. As part of its broader efforts, Apple has even considered eventually deploying its own satellites, but this feature is likely to rely on existing networks. The second emergency feature is focused on letting users report a crisis. The phone will ask what kind of emergency is happening, such as whether it involves a car, boat, plane, or fire. The system is also able to take more specific information such as a person falling overboard or a ship sinking.

It will ask a user if search and rescue services are needed. if there is suspicious behavior or weapons involved, and if a person has suffered a traumatic injury. When reaching emergency services, the feature can send a user's location and medical ID, a virtual card in the health app, with a list of a user's medical history, age, medications, and information like height and weight. It can also notify a user's emergency contacts, typically a person's family, friends, or doctors. It's unclear which emergency services or providers the system would tap into. the set of features would compete with the Garmin in-reach device, which lets users send short messages or an SOS over satellite networks, end quote. And finally today, the White House has announced the U.S. Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship aimed to recruit early career software engineers and other technologists to federal agencies, quoting FedSoup.

Dubbed the U.S. Digital Corps, participants will improve IT service delivery in relation to, to the federal coronavirus response, economic recovery, cybersecurity, and agencies' individual missions. The Day One project proposed the fellowship back in December as a way to eventually recruit thousands of recent graduates across technical fields in what could become the Biden-Harris version of President John F. Kennedy's Peace Corps, or President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps, said Nick Sinai, former federal deputy chief technology officer under President Obama. Quote, we have great opportunities for experienced tech talent to serve in term-limited roles in government like the U.S. Digital Service, 18F, and Presidential Innovation Fellows, Sinai said. But we haven't focused on getting talented technologists into government at the start of their career.

The Digital Corps can change that, end quote. The Digital Corps will be housed within Technology Transformation Services at the General Services Administration, which partnered with the Office of Management and Budget, Office of Personnel Management, Cybersecurity, and, infrastructure, security agency, and Office of Science and Technology Policy to deliver the program. The collaboration is notable as GSA, OMB, and OPM aimed to restore trust in their working relationship, as is CISA's involvement because U.S.DS, 18F, and the PIF program aren't as focused on security. An initial cohort will launch with 30 fellows in the fall at more than five participating agencies, including GSA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fellows will be matched with agencies based on their

skills and interests and mentored through a development curriculum with individual performance plans. Traditionally, government has focused on credentials, but skills will matter more than a degree for the Digital Corps. Recruits will come from both leading undergraduate programs and alternative training pathways like apprenticeships, boot camps, and certificate programs to make the cohort as diverse as possible. Currently, only 3% of the federal tech workforce is under the age of 30, and only 26% are women, end quote. I once interviewed former Google search guru Matt Cuts around the time he became the administrator of the United States Digital Service. It was for the Internet History podcast, if you want to look up that episode.

We mostly talk about Google and search history, but I also thought he made a compelling case for something that doesn't have much of a history in the tech industry. The idea of public service as a way for technologists to give back to their countries or societies by offering time and expertise, not just money. Very noble, I thought, and something that hopefully more people will consider at various points in their careers. Okay, so I have a soups interesting thing to tell you about. It's something I've been planning for a while, but I figured doing it soon after the

thousandth episode would make sense. Have you ever seen those podcasts and websites that do sort of brackets of things voting on Twitter. You know, Sweet 16 style brackets where people vote on things until there's one winner. I think one was running last week for the all-time best Disney movie songs. And my favorite podcast, The Rest Is History, has done two of these, what they called the World Cup of British Prime Ministers and the World Cup of Gods, ancient gods.

So we're going to do something similar. I'm calling it the World Cup of Entrepreneurs. I've selected 16 entrepreneurs prominent in the last 30 years of technology and such, and we're going to vote on them until one entrepreneur is left standing. What is the criteria we're using? The best, the smartest, the most successful. Are we using market caps? What are we measuring here? Well, that's kind of the fun of it. We're going to leave it vague and leave it to you just for, you. you know, shits and giggles. Right now, if you go to my Twitter page, or actually, sorry, the show's Twitter page, which is at TechMeme podcast, you'll find the first poll, which pits Reed Hastings of Netflix fame

against Evan Spiegel of Snapchat. The poll will run for 24 hours roughly, and we'll do a completely different matchup tomorrow, and every day going forward until this is over, which should take around 15 days, or so when it is all over, we will record a two-part episode running down the brackets and analyzing who won and who lost. The fun of it will be that this will allow us a fun little lens to analyze the careers and attributes of all these people. Chris Messina and I will be involved

in these analysis episodes, of course, but also Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal of the Acquired podcast are also going to be on the analysis panel with us. So, Go to the show's Twitter page at TechMeme podcast and start voting. I should have it as the pinned tweet to my account. Who was the better entrepreneur? Reed Haysinger, Evan Spiegel. Who was a bigger disruptor? Who was a smarter business person?

Who made the better company? Heck, who do you just like more? There's no rhyme or reason to any of this. It's just fun, folks. So go vote. And if you do, please retweet the tweet with the poll in it so we can get a huge sample size of votes. And hurry, because there will be a new poll tomorrow.

Talk to you then.