Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/20 – The DOJ Antitrust Suit Against Google

Starting point is 00:00:04 Welcome to the TechMe right home for Tuesday, October 20th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. The feds have finally thrown the book at Google. But the DOJ has also targeted the infamous sandworm hackers as well. Intel sells its NAND memory unit as consolidation in chips continues. Microsoft partners with Elon Musk to take its battle with AWS to space. What product is Google abandoning today? And the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro reviews are here. Which one should you get? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Well, it finally happened. Today, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit, alleging that Google has engaged in anti-competitive conduct to preserve monopolies in search and search advertising, quoting protocol. Two decades ago, Google became the darling of Silicon

Starting point is 00:00:54 Valley as a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet, the DOJ wrote in the complaint. That Google is long gone. For many years, Google has used anti-competitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the market for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising. The cornerstones of its empire, the DOJ added. DOJ officials emphasized that this is only the beginning of a long effort to take on Google during a call with reporters. We are asking the court to break Google's grip on search distribution so competition and innovation can take hold. And consumers and advertisers will no longer be beholden to an unchecked monopolist, said Ryan Shores, the DOJ's senior

Starting point is 00:01:35 advisor for technology industries on the same call. In a statement, Google called the lawsuit, quote, deeply flawed. A Google spokesperson added, people use Google because they choose to, not because they're forced to or because they can't find alternatives, end quote. And quoting from the Wall Street Journal. Justice officials said the lawsuit also takes aim at arrangements in which Google's search application is preloaded and can't be deleted on mobile phones running its popular Android operating system. The government alleges Google unlawfully prohibits competitors' search applications from being preloaded on phones under revenue sharing agreements, they said. Google owns or controls search distribution channels accounting for about 80% of search queries in the U.S., the officials

Starting point is 00:02:16 said. That means Google's competitors can't get a meaningful number of search queries and build a scale needed to compete, leaving customers with less choice and less innovation and advertisers with less competitive prices. The lawsuit alleges, end quote. Note that the state attorneys general are also expected to file a suit against Google at some point, though that has not yet been announced, and it is unclear if all of these cases could be merged, quoting the New York Times. It's the most newsworthy monopolization action brought by the government since the Microsoft case in the late 90s, said Bill Baer, a former chief of the Justice Department's antitrust division. It's significant in that the government believes that a highly successful tech platform has engaged

Starting point is 00:02:59 in conduct that maintains its monopoly power unlawfully, and as a result injures consumers and competition, end quote. Google and its allies will likely criticize the suit as being politically motivated. The Trump administration has attacked Google, which owns YouTube and other online platform companies, as being slanted against conservative views. The lawsuit will likely outlast the Trump administration itself, however. The government's case against Microsoft took more than a decade to settle, end quote. Busy bees over at the DOJ, because the Department of Justice

Starting point is 00:03:36 also filed charges against six Russian GRU officers, who they say were allegedly behind the Nat Petia and Black Energy blackouts in the Ukraine, and also the cyber attacks on the Olympics and the French election, among many other incidents. In fact, separately, UK and U.S. officials say Russian military intelligence services were planning a cyber attack on the Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, originally scheduled for the summer before the global pandemic scuppered all of that. But back to the filing. This crew, the crew in question goes by many names, telebots, black energy, voodoo bear, but they're generally known as sandworm, quoting ZDNet.

Starting point is 00:04:17 In court documents today, U.S. officials said all six suspects are members of unit 7445 of the Russian Maine Intelligence Directorate, GRU, a military intelligence agency, part of the Russian army. As part of this unit, U.S. officials said the six conducted, quote, destructive cyberattacks on behalf and under orders of the Russian government, with the intent to destabilize other countries, interfere in their internal politics and cause havoc and monetary losses. The filings outline seven separate alleged incidents, but these are only the attacks documented in the DOJ indictment unsealed today. They represent only a fraction of the group's vast cyber operations, which go back as far as 2010. Quote, as this case shows no country has

Starting point is 00:04:59 weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously and irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented collateral damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite, said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, referring to attacks like Black Energy, Natpecia, and Olympic Destroyer, all of which were not aimed at intelligence gathering, but were clear destructive attacks intent on sabotage, end quote. Something, something continued consolidation in the semiconductor and chip space. Intel has agreed to sell its NAND memory unit to SK. Hynix for about $9 billion. The acquisition will include Intel's solid state drive, NAND flash, and wafer businesses, quoting Bloomberg. The deal should

Starting point is 00:05:49 shore up Hynix's position in a business that's boomed after COVID-19 drove demand for the chips used in everything from Apple's iPhones to data centers. It whittles down another player in an industry. The Korean company dominates alongside Samsung and Micron Technology, potentially booing NAN flash prices, Hynex's shares fell about 1.8% after analysts raised concerns about the price tag on its largest acquisition ever. Quote, Hynex is now entering the hyperscale control chip business by purchasing Intel's business. Although there is some skepticism about the price of the deal, I think this won't be a burden because it will ensure solid long-term cash flow, said Greg Rowe, an analyst at HMC securities. The market consolidation is good news for Korean memory chipmakers and will

Starting point is 00:06:35 alleviate oversupply issues, end quote. Intel has said for months, it was exploring options for the Flash Group. Heinix, however, won't be buying the Optane Division, which develops chips that can permanently store data and read and write it faster than NAND, if not faster than traditional DRAM. The product, which went on sale in 2018, was tested successfully by some large cloud providers and Alibaba Group holding, used the technology to support its massive singles-day sales. Bob Swan, Intel's chief executive officer, described Optane as, quote, something special last year. The acquisition also further streamlines Intel's struggling empire. Since taking over in 2019, Swan has looked to sell several units that aren't part of the company's focus on processors for personal computers and servers.

Starting point is 00:07:20 The Santa Clara, California-based company, has delayed production of important upcoming chip lines and now lags behind some industry players in manufacturing technology. Its shares are down about 9% so far this year, while the benchmark Philadelphia, semiconductor index is up almost 29%, end quote. The NAND market is a really competitive and closely studied market, but it might be a bit niche for us to delve into too deeply. I'll let Patrick Morehead's analysis from Twitter sum it up, quote, NAND has become a bit commoditized, and to be profitable, one needs to go big and spend tens of billions of dollars in manufacturing. I think Intel is better off focusing on compute, networking, and optane, which helps its compute,

Starting point is 00:08:01 end quote, something, something Google gonna Google. The company has confirmed it is discontinuing Nest secure. A home security system, it introduced only in 2017, but it will continue to support existing users. It promises. It swears, pinky swear. Quoting Android police. Google released the Nest Guard in 2017 as a simple security system with motion sensors and a

Starting point is 00:08:29 keypad, but it never received an upgrade, even as other Nest devices were updated again and again. has now confirmed to Android police that the NessGuard is discontinued, though it will continue functioning. The product page for the Nesguard on the Google store was updated last week with a no longer available message, possibly indicating it had been discontinued. Google later confirmed to Android Police that the NessGuard will no longer be sold, but it will continue to work for people who have already bought it, end quote. And quoting the verge, Google isn't totally out of smart home security, though. It still sells video doorbells, security cameras, smoke alarms, and more.

Starting point is 00:09:05 announced a $450 million investment in security company ADT in August, saying that Nest devices will, quote, become the cornerstone of ADT's smart home offering as a part of that announcement, end quote. But would you invest in tricking out your whole home in Google products and expect it all to work 10 years from now? Lord knows I wouldn't. SpaceX has partnered with Microsoft for satellite-powered internet connectivity on Azure and has debuted Azure Space, a set of products for the space-related cloud market. So basically, Microsoft is taking its battle with AWS to space, I suppose, quoting ZDNet. Azure Space is a set of products, plus newly announced partnerships designed to position Azure as a key player in the space and satellite-related connectivity slash compute part

Starting point is 00:09:58 of the cloud market. Azure Space isn't just for companies in the space industry. It's meant to appeal to companies in public and private industry, customers in the agriculture, energy, telecommunications, and government markets. It's also meant for any customer with remote access and bandwidth needs. Microsoft's main cloud rival, AWS, announced its own space industry strategy and space unit called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions in June. It also has created its own satellite connection service, AWS Ground Station, and a satellite venture called Project Kuiper, which competes with SpaceX's Starlink and other satellite networking providers. So Microsoft is touting Elon Musk's SpaceX as one of its marquee Azure space partners.

Starting point is 00:10:38 Microsoft is working with SpaceX to provide satellite-powered internet connectivity on Azure. The pair plan to deliver the option to connect SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband to Microsoft's new Azure modular data center. SpaceX just announced this week that it has launched 60 more Starlink satellites for low Earth orbit deployment as part of its gearing up for a public beta of its satellite broadband service. The Azure modular data center MDC also announced today is Azure in a shipping container. The MDC, which includes its own HVAC system, server racks, networking, and security capabilities, is meant to give customers a ruggedized option for setting up an Azure data center in remote locations.

Starting point is 00:11:17 The MDC can run connected or disconnected. For now, MDC runs Azure Stack Hub, but a Microsoft spokesperson said, this might not be the case in the future as MDC is a self-contained data center. Maybe that's a nod to Azure Stack Fiji, Microsoft's still non-officially announced competitor to AWS outposts. Microsoft and SpaceX also plan in the future to offer connections between Starlink and Microsoft's global network, including Azure Edge computing devices. The idea is to integrate SpaceX's ground stations with Azure networking capabilities, giving customers access to all kinds of Microsoft services, ranging from machine learning and visualization to productivity services, end quote.

Starting point is 00:11:56 The iPhone 12 reviews are here, actually specifically the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. Let's start with the 12 Pro. Nilai Patel at the verge says it has an excellent camera and excellent performance. Dolby Vision is great. 5G can be very fast if you manage to snag it, but the battery life is inferior to the iPhone 11 pro. Since we've been hearing whispers about this recently, let's focus on that part first. quote. Testing battery life on the iPhone 12 pro was probably the hardest thing to do since I don't live

Starting point is 00:12:37 anywhere close to a 5G service area, and I was only back in New York City for a single day to shoot our review video. But in that single day, it felt like the battery on the iPhone 12 pro died a lot faster than I expected. After about two and a half hours of screen on time, I was at 18%. Of course, we were using 5G a lot for testing, and using the MM wave radio drains the battery faster, so it's hard to say how representative this is. I asked Apple, and I was told the company expects people to get a full day of usage out of the phone. In my normal quarantine routine, where I'm on Wi-Fi nearly all the time, that certainly seemed reasonable. In the end, I think iPhone 12 Pro battery life is going to vary widely for people depending on how much they use 5G, especially MMWA 5G. So this is

Starting point is 00:13:21 something we'll have to track over time. But I would definitely not expect the try and stop me battery life we saw on the regular iPhone 11, end quote. But also note this, quote, I think for most people, the experience of using 5G will be virtually the same as using LTE for now, not the least because the iPhone will step you down to LTE to save battery life whenever it can with a feature called smart data. In fact, if you're in a 5G service area, you'll see the 5G symbol at the top of the phone to indicate that you have access to 5G, but the phone might still be using LTE because it doesn't think you need the extra speed. You can turn smart data off, but I can't. can't see any reason you'd want to at this time, end quote.

Starting point is 00:13:59 Nelai concludes this way, quote, If you're not upgrading for the cameras, the iPhone 12 pro doesn't offer so much more over the iPhone 12 that it's a must-have upgrade. In many ways, most of the new features on the phone are ahead of their time. I don't think 5G is all that big of a deal yet when the networks aren't really built out. There aren't exactly killer apps for it, and we're all spending most of our time at home anyway. Dolby Vision video is right up my alley, but it still has to shake out in the wild a little.

Starting point is 00:14:24 The U1 chip and LiDAR sensor, well, it certainly seems like they're going to be big deals, but not quite yet. I'm not trying to end this on a down note. The iPhone 12 Pro is a beautiful, powerful, and incredibly capable device. I enjoyed using it during this review, and the camera is extremely good. If you can find a patch of sidewalk with an MM-wave signal, you will have a killer speed test screenshot to share. It will make you happy if you buy one. But if you're going to spend the money to upgrade over the regular iPhone 12, I would definitely wait for the iPhone 12th, Pro Max reviews first, end quote. Well, we don't have word on the Pro Max yet, because remember the

Starting point is 00:15:01 high-end and low-end phones of this quartet are delayed until November. So that means no 12 mini reviews yet today. But let's step back to the other phone that we can talk about, the iPhone 12, the regular, if you will. Deeter Bones' review of that phone in The Verge says that iPhone 12 has an excellent camera, display, design, the MagSafe ecosystem is promising. But again, battery life is inferior to the iPhone 11's and it's more expensive. He concludes by saying this, quote, the iPhone 12 is going to be the default choice for a lot of people buying an iPhone over the next year, and it's frankly fortunate that the default iPhone is so good. I think most people should get this instead of the iPhone 12 Pro, but I also think if you have an iPhone that's working for you just fine,

Starting point is 00:15:46 there's not a must-have got-a-get-it feature here to compel you to upgrade. That's how default phones work. When you need one, get one, and it will be way better than what you're using. When you don't need one, don't. But when the time comes for you to get a new phone, and if you end up with this iPhone 12, I think you're going to love it, end quote. Helpfully for me, at least, both TechCrunch and Engadget combined their reviews of the two phones into one single review. TechCrunch titled theirs by saying, these devices are two gems in terms of phones, but only one is a jewel. Which one is the jewel? Quote, the iPhone 12 Pro is bested theoretically in the camera department by the iPhone 12 Pro Max. which has the biggest and best sensor Apple has yet created, but its dimensions are similarly biggest.

Starting point is 00:16:30 The iPhone 12 has been precisely cloned in a smaller version with the iPhone 12 Mini. By my simple decision-making matrix, either one of those are a better choice for me than either of the models I've tested. He's referring to the 12 and 12 Pro. If the object becomes to find the best compromise between the two, the iPhone 12 pro is the pick. But for most people, the iPhone 12 is a really stellar buy. It's bright colors, lightweight, but sound construction, and improved camera make it the easy choice for those confused by Apple's broad current lineup.

Starting point is 00:17:01 As mentioned above in the camera section, if the telephoto lens is something you use a significant amount on your current phone, it's a simple call. Upgrade. If it's not, do yourself a favor and think about putting a bit of color in your life. You're not going to miss much by choosing the regular iPhone 12, end quote. That was Matthew Panzerino. Sounds like he's actually holding out for the 12 Mini. And finally, here's Chris Velasco adding Gadget, who sums it up like this, quote. So at the end of it all, which one should you buy? That's easy. I have no doubt that for most

Starting point is 00:17:31 people, the iPhone 12 is absolutely the right choice. To me, at least, its blend of design, display, performance, and price nearly make it a no-brainer, especially for anyone whose phone has seen better days. With that in mind, though, I don't think this is one of those years where it's worth upgrading if you splurged on a new model last year. Considering how similar they are, the iPhone 12 Pro is a considerably tougher cell, but it still might be worth it for some. The base pro model gets you double the storage found in the base iPhone 12, and at that point, you only really have to decide whether $150 is too much to spend for better materials and a more flexible camera system. Then again, if camera performance is your biggest priority when shopping for smartphones,

Starting point is 00:18:11 I'd suggest you take a breath and wait to see how things shake out with the iPhone 12 Pro max. Though if size is a concern, the smaller 12 pro may remain the better choice. Here's the thing. Whether the iPhone 12 Pro is the right phone right now almost doesn't matter. It really feels like Apple uses these devices as a test bed for features and experiences that will eventually go mainstream. LIDAR is a great example. I have to expect more people will buy an iPhone 12 Pro than an $800 iPad Pro with LiD, which gives developers more of a reason to explore what it could do for augmented reality. The point is, even if there might not be many reasons to buy an iPhone 12 pro over an iPhone 12,

Starting point is 00:18:47 you'll eventually benefit from the work Apple puts into its high-end devices, end quote. That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 10/20 – The DOJ Antitrust Suit Against Google

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