Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 09/21 – iPhone Reviews, Kindle Drops And HP Laptops

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

HP refreshes its entire lineup. Those new Kindles are here. PayPal wants to super-app. Sorare is a very interesting raise. Coinbase backs down. Apple wants to detect cognitive decline. And the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro reviews are here. Sponsors: UrbanCatalyst.com/techmeme Blockchain.com Links: HP revamps consumer PC lineup with 16-inch Spectre x360, 34-inch Envy all-in-one PC (ZDNet) PayPal launches its ‘super app’ combining payments, savings, bill pay, crypto, shopping and more (TechCrunch) Fantasy soccer NFT platform Sorare scores $680 million raise led by SoftBank (The Block) Coinbase Drops Crypto Lending Program Plans After SEC Balks (Bloomberg Wealth) Amazon unveils three new Kindles with bigger screens, longer battery life (CNBC) Google to Buy New York City Office Building for $2.1 Billion (WSJ) Apple Is Working on iPhone Features to Help Detect Depression, Cognitive Decline (WSJ) IPHONE 13 REVIEW: YEP, BIGGER BATTERIES ARE BETTER (The Verge) IPHONE 13 PRO REVIEW: A BETTER DISPLAY, THE BEST CAMERA, AND INCREDIBLE BATTERY LIFE (The Verge) 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, September 21st, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. HP refreshes its entire lineup. Those new Kindles are here. PayPal wants to Super App. So Rare is a very interesting raise. Coinbase backs down. Apple wants to detect cognitive decline. And the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro reviews are here. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

HP refreshed its entire consumer lineup of devices this morning. quoting ZDNet. HP is revamping its entire consumer lineup for Windows 11 and an expectation that devices are going to be increasingly used for work as much as play. With its consumer PC lineup, HP is addressing everything from low-light video calls, ergonomics, and collaboration, as well as the usual streaming, entertainment, and gaming use cases. The headliners of HP's portfolio include the Specter X-360 16-inch 2-1 laptop.

that'll start at $1,139. The laptop includes a 5-mixel camera for video conferencing as well as the Intel Evo platform and 11th Gen Intel Core I7. Memory is 16 gigabytes with 512 gigabytes of memory and 32 gigabytes of Intel Optane memory. The NV-34-inch all-in-one desktop comes with a 5K display and all-in-one detachable magnetic camera to catch multiple angles and Nvidia G-Force RtX, 3080 graphics. The all-in-one will start at nearly $2,000 and feature the 11th gen Intel Core I7, 32 gigabytes of memory, and 512 gigabytes of storage. Then there's the HP 11-inch tablet PC, which has a 13-mepixel front camera that rotates, is more affordable at $599. The device runs on Intel Pentium Silver N6,000 with 4 gigabytes of memory and 128 gigabytes of storage.

While those three aforementioned devices are premium, HP also made a few interesting moves at lower price points. For instance, the HP 14-inch laptop runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 7C Gen 2 compute and has Windows 11. While those three aforementioned devices are premium, HP also made a few interesting moves at lower price points. H.P. Launched the Pavilion all-in-one that comes in 27-inch and 24-inch models powered by AMD Risen. Another all-on-one is the HP 27-inch desktop PC and 24-inch version powered by AMD Risen. HP also launched a series of apps for creatives and a 34-inch curved monitor, end quote. PayPal is trying to execute on that super app concept today updating its core app to include

a Batman's utility belt of services, including direct deposits, crypto tools, peer-to-peer payments, and a digital wallet, quoting TechCrunch. The company is also announcing its partnership with Synchriny Bank for its new high-yield savings account PayPal savings. These changes shift PayPal from being largely a payments utility that's tacked on other offerings here and there to being a more fully fleshed out finance app. Though PayPal itself doesn't aim to be a bank, the new app offers a range of competitive features for those considering shifting their finances to neobanks like Chime or Vero, as it will now also include support for paycheck direct deposits through PayPal's bank partners,

bill pay, and more. By enabling direct deposit, PayPal users can get paid a to two days earlier, which is one of the bigger draws among those considering digital banking apps over traditional banks. The enhanced bill pay feature lets customers track view and pay bills from thousands of companies, including utilities, TV and Internet, insurance, credit cards, phone, and more, PayPal says. When Bill Pay first arrived earlier this year, it offered access to single-digit thousands of billers. Now it will support around 17,000 billers. Customers can also discover billers through an improved intelligent search feature, set reminders to be notified of upcoming bills, and schedule automatic payments for bills they have to pay on a regular basis. The bills don't have to

only be paid from funds currently in the PayPal account, but can be paid through any eligible funding source that's already linked to their PayPal account. Via a synchrony bank partnership, PayPal Savings will offer a high-yield savings account with a 0.4% annual percentage yield, or APY, which is more than six times the national average of 0.06%, the company says. However, that is lower than top rivals in the digital banking market offer, like CHIME at a half of a percent. Vero starts at 0.2 percent, but users can qualify to get 3 percent APY. Marcus comes in at half a percent. Ally is at half of a percent.

One is at 1 percent or 3 percent on auto-save transactions and others. However, the rate may appeal to those who are switching from a traditional bank where rates tend to be lower. The payments tab, meanwhile, will hold much of PayPal's traditional feature set, including peer-to-peer payments, international remittances, charitable and nonprofit giving, plus now bill pay and two-way messaging features that allow users to request payments or say thank you after receiving a payment, whether that's between friends and family or between merchants and customers. This edition could bring PayPal more in line with PayPal-owned Venmo, which already offers the ability to add notes to payments and make comments.

Messaging also ties into PayPal's new shopping hub, which is where the company is finally putting to good use. its 2019 $4 billion honey acquisition. Honey's core features are now becoming a part of the PayPal mobile experience, including personalized deals and exclusive rewards. As PayPal has said, the new app is laying the groundwork for other new products in the quarters to come. The biggest initiative on its roadmap is a plan to enter the investment space to rival other mobile investing apps like Robin Hood. When this arrives, it will support the ability to buy stocks, fractional stocks, and ETFs, PayPal says, end quote. extremely interesting raise and a big one too. Paris-based So Rare, the soccer-focused

NFT trading platform we spoke about not too long ago, has raised a $680 million series B led by SoftB by SoftB Vision Fund 2 at a $4.3 billion valuation, quoting the block. Atomico, Besmer Ventures, D1 Capital, Yuraseo, IVP, and Liontree are all investing in the startup for the first time alongside SoftBank with existing backers benchmark, a sell, and headline, also participating. So Rare lets fans trade non-fungible tokens trading cards of superstar players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griseman, which are underpinned by the Ethereum blockchain. Founded in 2018, the Paris-based startup has notched $150 million in card sales so far this year. The platform's monthly active paying users grew by 34 times between the second quarter of

2020 and the second quarter of this year, with quarterly sales up 51 times over the same period. It currently boasts 600,000 registered users and has licensed players from over 180 soccer organizations, including Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Juventus, end quote. Coinbase quietly updated its blog yesterday to say it is tabling the launch of that lend product intended to pay users' interest for lending out tokens. This comes after SEC pressure, like apparently. the SEC pointing out the language in the opening paragraph of nearly 100-year-old securities laws, quoting Bloomberg. The decision to shelve its lend product, which the company announced quietly in an update to an old blog post at 5 p.m. on Friday,

comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission threatened to sue the firm if it moved ahead. It also represents a dramatic reversal for Coinbase, whose top executives made its skirmish with the SEC public in defiant posts on social media on September 7th. Coinbase's about phase comes as the SEC under chair Gary Gensler takes a tougher line on cryptocurrency products that may fall under the agency's purview and the platforms that they trade on. The planned lend program, which would have let users earn 4% by lending their tokens, has become a flashpoint in growing tensions between the regulator and the burgeoning crypto industry, end quote. Also a bit of a quick follow-up on this one. Amazon this morning, as expected, introduced three Kindle Paperwhite updates,

a $140 paperwhite with a 6.8 inch display and USBC, a $190 signature edition with 32 gigabytes of storage, and a $160 kids edition, quoting CNBC. The new paperwhite offers up to 10 weeks of battery life on a charge up from six weeks in the earlier model and now includes USBC charging. It takes about two and a half hours to charge fully. As with earlier models, it's IPX-8 water resistance, so you don't have to worry if it falls in the pool. and it has a new processor, so pages turn 20% faster than before.

Lastly, it's gaining the warm light feature from the higher-end Kindle Oasis, which lets you add an orange tint to the screen. That can be easier on your eyes if you're reading in bed. The Signature Edition offers the same features as the regular model, but with 32 gigabytes of storage instead of 8 gigabytes, which means there's more room for books and audiobooks. It looks the same, but also supports wireless charging, so you can drop it on any wireless charger you might already have for a phone to juice it up.

It also has an auto-adjusting light that will dim or brighten depending on the level of ambient light in your room. The Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition also includes the same features as the regular paperwhite but costs $159 and includes one year of Amazon Kids Plus, a kid-friendly cover and a two-year replacement guarantee, end quote. From the have COVID times changed how and where we work file, Google announced that. this morning that it will buy St. John's Terminal, a 1.3 million square foot office building that it is leasing on Manhattan's West Side for $2.1 billion, quoting the Wall Street Journal. The deal for the new building on Manhattan's West Side is the most expensive sale of a single U.S. office building since the start of the pandemic and one of the priciest in U.S. history, according to data company Real Capital Analytics. Google is already leasing the 1.3 million

square foot waterfront building, a former freight terminal dubbed St. John's Terminal in the Hudson Square neighborhood. The company has an option to buy, which it said it plans to exercise in the first quarter of 2022, end quote. Quoting Benedict Evans on Twitter, cities are dead and everyone will work from everywhere, end quote, though as Mita Senegupta on Twitter immediately retorted, quote, cities do not have to die for everyone to work from everywhere, end quote. No, and in fact, as I discussed previously, I'd love to do a summer doing this show from Paris, from London, from Tokyo, but also frankly from Wyoming. Finally today, a bunch of Apple News, tied in a bow at the end with the first of the Apple 13 reviews, which broke embargo this morning. But first for

the news, yesterday our buddy Ming Chi Kuo dropped some deets about upcoming iPhone generations. Quo says he expects to see an iPhone SE with 5G in the first half. of next year. Also, a cheaper 6.7-inch iPhone and two high-end models with a punchhole display and a 48-mixel-wide camera due in the second half of 2022, so likely the iPhone 14s. He also revised his forecast and said he doesn't expect an under-display touch ID until the second half of 2023, so that means the iPhone 15s, I guess. Also, a foldable iPhone is not expected by quo until 2024. Then this morning, the Well Street Journal was reporting on sources who say that Apple is working with UCLA and Biogen to identify depression, cognitive decline, and other

issues using sensor data from iPhones, such as when you type on your phone or when you sleep. Quote, using an array of sensor data that includes mobility, physical activity, sleep patterns, typing behavior, and more, researchers hope they can tease out digital signals associated with the target conditions so that algorithms can be created to detect them reliably, the people said. Apple hopes that would become the basis for unique features for its devices, according to the people and documents. The efforts spring from research partnerships that Apple has announced with the University of California, Los Angeles, which is studying stress, anxiety, and depression, and pharmaceutical company, Biogen, which is studying mild cognitive impairment.

Sea Breeze is Apple's codename for the UCLA Project, and Pi is the code name for the biogen project, according to the people and the documents. Much of Apple's past health work has focused on features for its smartwatch. The mental health and cognitive decline research leverages more sensitive iPhone data and shows Apple's health unit is now looking at features for the company's flagship product, according to people familiar with the plans. Proper diagnosis of mental health conditions and brain disorders typically requires close observation by specialists, but many people have no access to such specialists.

Researchers working with Apple hope their work leads to a widely available alternative, end quote. And then, as promised, the iPhone 13 reviews. As ever, I'm going to go with Dieter over at the verge. Of the iPhone 13, Deeter says, it has excellent cameras, better battery life and more base storage, but the front camera is unchanged. The screen has a standard refresh rate, and apparently iPhone 12 cases don't fit this thing. He concludes by saying this, quote, I think it's all too easy to look at the iPhone 13 and 13 Many and not think much of the updates this year. Cameras get better every year, and every company promises good battery life, after all. And compared to the massive changes we saw on the iPhone last year, the 13 looks iterative,

more like an iPhone 12S than truly new models. I won't pretend that reading is totally wrong, but I also think it misses the point. Fancy new features are fun, but the fundamentals of battery life and camera are more important, because if you focus on the fundamentals, your whole game gets better, and the iPhone 13 has got some good game, end quote. As for the iPhone 13 Pro, the assessment from Dieter is incredible cameras, improved battery life, and high refresh display, but the front camera is stubbornly still very average, and still not having USBC is really getting annoying at this point. He concludes thusly, quote, The Pro Motion Display is the perfect example of what you get with the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max. It's an improvement that may only matter explicitly to a few, but will subtly make life nicer for everybody who uses it. The battery life upgrade isn't quite so subtle, of course. As for the camera, I can see it both ways. When you're sharing photos and videos to

social media and looking at them on a phone, the differences are subtle at most. But they're there if you look for them, and if you use your iPhone's camera for more than just Instagram, you'll appreciate the updates. The list of significant things I have to complain about with these phones is almost astonishingly short. Though, as you might expect, I can quibble for days about little things like the lack of a meaningful MagSafe ecosystem, the lightning port, or how iOS 15 handles notifications. The story of the iPhone 13 Pro, though, is a story of iteration, but iteration matters. iPhone 12 Pro owners will have to pay a lot of attention to see some of the differences, and an upgrade probably doesn't make a lot of sense. But if you're using something

older, all that iteration comes on top of the major improvements from the iPhone 12 Pro, the upgrades will be very noticeable. Either way, when you start to pay attention to the details, prepare to be impressed, end quote. All right, y'all, apparently my efforts yesterday were not entirely satisfying to one particular critic, so sister's going to do it for herself. Here you go. Okay, Nintendo, this is Penelope. She has a message for you about what she'd like to see for Legend of Zelda. I'd like to see an end game for Breath of the Wild, because we have the beginning and middle, like Hyra Warriors, Age of Calamity's beginning, and then the middle's actual Legend of Zelda.

But I want an end game, like an ending, because like an ending. You want to find out what happens after Calamity is defeated? Yes, because when Calamity is defeated in Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, it's just an end game. You have to start all over again. And people don't want to do that. They just want to keep playing. Some people want to start over. Sort of like how Super Mario Odyssey lets you do.

Yeah. Like, when you defeat something, you get to go again. Like, to the people who like to play all over again. And it gave you a choice to keep all your stuff and all your armor and food to explore the world. Okay, Nintendo. Hope you're listening. You know how to get in touch with me if you would like to talk with Penny further. Thank you very much.