Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 02/19 - It’s Friggin’ App News Wednesday

Starting point is 00:00:00 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 Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. The ways in which Twitter might be taking a page out of Facebook's book,

Starting point is 00:00:43 and Facebook might be trying some Twitter-like feed experiments. Spotify starts showing song lyrics. Ring finally requires two-factor authentication, and be sure to listen to the end of today's episode to hear about our new Gaming Ride Home podcast. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Twitter has acquired Chroma Labs, which makes tools for video and photo creation.

Starting point is 00:01:09 But there's a much more interesting story here. The TLDR is that maybe with this acquisition, Twitter could soon get its own version of stories, maybe. Here's why I'm making that prediction. John Barnett, Alex Lee, and Joshua Harris founded Chroma Labs. Prior to Chroma, they were at Facebook working on projects, such as the launch of Instagram stories, as well as augmented reality camera effects for Oculus.

Starting point is 00:01:36 Chroma Labs' main product has been Chroma Stories, an app which basically gives you templates to post collages and other things for your Instagram stories, your Snapchat, and whatever else. Think of Chroma Stories as basically an editing suite to spruce up your posts before posting so you can do social media really, really well. Now, it sounds like Twitter will be splitting the Chroma Labs team, all seven of them, among its product design and engineering teams, and the Chroma Stories

Starting point is 00:02:08 iPhone app will be shutting down, so grab that if you like it. Splitting up the team across the Twitter organization makes it sound like this is an ACU hire. And as Josh Constine puts it, quote, by snatching up some of the smartest talent and visual storytelling, Twitter could give its text-focused app some spice. It's one of the few social apps without a Stories product already, and its creative tools are quite limited. Better ways to lay out photos and tweets could make Twitter more beautiful and less exhausting to sift through. That might make it more appealing to teens and help it boost its user count, which now lags behind Snapchat. Twitter has become the world's public record for words.

Starting point is 00:02:45 The Chroma Labs talent might make it the real-time gallery for art and design as well, end quote. As Kurt Wagner tweeted, Twitter bought a startup called Chroma Labs and is bringing on a team of product guys who used to be at Facebook to give people more creative ways to express themselves in conversations. Interested to see what that means, end quote. Speaking of Facebook and speaking of Josh Constine, Facebook, according to Constine, is internally testing a tabbed version of the news feed for mobile, which would include the following.

Starting point is 00:03:23 A most relevant feed tab, a most recent feed tab, and an already seen feed tab. So interesting that Facebook is at least considering blowing up its vaunted algorithm, quoting Josh again. The tabbed feed is currently unleashed, but if Facebook officially rolls it out, it could make the social network feel more dynamic and alive as it would be easier to access most recent to view what's happening in real time. It also could help users track down an important post they lost, and they might want to learn from or comment on. The tabbed interface would be the biggest change to news feed since 2013 when Facebook announced, but later scrapped the launch of a multi-feed with sidebar options for just exploring music, photos,

Starting point is 00:04:06 close friends, and more. The tabbed newsfeed prototype was spotted in the Facebook for Android Code by Master Reverse Engineering Specialist Jane Mention Wong, who has provided to TechCrunch tips on core new features. She was able to generate these screenshots that show the tabs for relevant, recent, and seen above the news feed. Tapping these reveals a sort-your-newsfeed configuration window where you can choose between the feeds, see descriptions from them, or dive into the existing newsfeed preferences about who you block or see first, end quote. Lord knows that I personally have stopped going to Facebook almost at all, because the algorithm just gives me garbage these days. So giving users more control over the content they summon

Starting point is 00:04:51 might be a way to get us all to scroll more, and some of us may be a chance to come back. But given these two stories together, I do think the really interesting thing here is that Facebook maybe wants to do some of the feed-based experiments that Twitter has been doing to possibly unlock more real-time content. And Twitter is AccuHiring the talent that made Facebook more multimedia and story-rific. Remember the news of those layoffs at Mozilla, which came about because the company said at least its push to diversify into new products was taking longer than anticipated. The main product that Mozilla was working on was a VPN. Well, the VPN is now available, if you're on Android at least, and if you have an invite. It's called Firefox Private Network and it's $4.99 a month. But again, it is a closed beta for the time being, quoting Android Police.

Starting point is 00:05:48 The Play Store listing is light on details, but the official site for the Firefox Private Network has everything you need to know. The service is powered by Mulved VPN, which claims to have a... no logging policy. Instead of more traditional protocols like OpenVPN or IPSEC, Firefox Private Network utilizes the newer WireGuard standard, which is designed to offer faster speeds and improved encryption. Most VPN services don't support WireGuard, so that's likely the key advantage to Firefox's service, end quote. Firefox says the VPN can support up to five simultaneous connections, but note that the $4.99 a month price tag is, quote, limited time beta pricing. No word on what the official eventual pricing will be. At long last,

Starting point is 00:06:42 Spotify has started showing complete song lyrics synced with the music you're listening to. You might not be able to see this in your Spotify app yet because it sounds like it's rolling out slowly. And there hasn't been an official announcement as of the time of this writing. Still, quoting from Android Police, our tipster, Jandy is on Spotify. beta 8.5.46.848. But the feature seems to be server site enabled as our own Artem is using the same version but doesn't see lyrics yet. We had previously spotted these full lyrics in a small test in November, but a further rollout started last week and now seems to be spreading fast over the last few hours. A quick Twitter search revealed dozens of reports from all over the world. There's even one

Starting point is 00:07:28 mention of it showing up on desktop. The full lyrics are provided by Music X-Match. a service previously used by many to overlay lyrics on top of Spotify. They're not available on all songs, but you should see a lyrics indicator in playlists before the artist's name to identify supported tracks. When you're playing a song, swiping up to reveal what used to be the rather pointless behind the lyrics, shows the full lyrics instead. You can then expand to view them on the entire screen. Lyrics scroll with the music to help you sing along, end quote.

Starting point is 00:08:03 I don't know what to tell you. I guess this is just a day of app news from basically everyone. This one you might have already noticed, but Google Docs AutoCorrect is apparently rolling out widely today, and the Smart Compose feature is officially exiting G Suite beta today, quoting 9 to 5 Google. AutoCorrect in Google Docs on the web is identical to live spelling and grammar correction that first debuted for Gmail.

Starting point is 00:08:30 Mispelled words are automatically corrected and denoted by a gray dashed underlined, though the marker disappears as you continue typing. Hovering over the autocorrected portion will reveal an undo button while your operating system's standard keyboard shortcuts also work. Google Docs autocorrect is enabled by default, though visiting tools and then preferences and unchecking automatically correct spelling lets you disable it. It will be available for all G Suite and personal Google accounts in the next few weeks, end quote.

Starting point is 00:09:00 Meanwhile, as I said, smart composed for Google Docs has become generally available today, but only for paying customers. Smart Compose is that thing in Gmail, which suggests relevant phrases to complete what you're typing, which is either super helpful or super annoying, depending on your temperament, I guess. And another one. I'm not trying to be repetitive here. This is just how the chips are falling today. Photoshop is officially turning 30 years old, and to celebrate, Adobe is rolling out a slew of new desktop and mobile features, including bringing the much asked for object selection tool to the iPad version of the Photoshop app. The desktop version of Photoshop is getting the ability to make multiple selections with content-aware fill. There's also

Starting point is 00:09:51 updates to lens blur and performance boosts to panning and zooming, but let's go back to the object selection coming to the three-month-old iPad app, quoting in gadget. This particular feature was only added to the desktop app in November and the company worked quickly to bring it to the mobile version. Essentially, Adobe's AI and machine learning will automatically make a selection for you beyond just the main subject. If you don't have time to use the magic wand, lasso, or other selection method, Photoshop can do the often time-consuming heavy lifting for you. Select subject is handy when there's a primary person or object in an image, but object selection will offer something similar for more complex files. Once you pick the object selection tool, you

Starting point is 00:10:34 simply draw a rectangle or lasso around the area you need to select. Photoshop will find the primary objects in the highlighted area. You can also add to the selection by continuing to lasso other parts of an image, end quote. Adobe also added type settings for Photoshop on the iPad today as well, though Kearning is still waiting for a future update. And Microsoft's Unified Office app is now officially available on iOS and Android, quoting the verge. All of the main apps are combined, meaning you can switch between documents quickly, scan PDFs and even capture whiteboards, text, and tables into digital versions.

Starting point is 00:11:14 Microsoft is also adding support for third-party cloud storage like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and ICloud. Today's release will also be available on Android tablets with limited support, and a fully optimized tablet experience will be available on both iPadOS and Android soon. While the initial feature set will be useful for quickly creating templates, scanning tables, and just using Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files on the go, Microsoft has more mobile focus features planned. Word dictation looks set to be one of the most interesting. You'll be able to use Word within this office app to dictate your voice into text.

Starting point is 00:11:48 There's even a voice command bar for adding punctuation like commas, question marks, and exclamation marks, end quote. Also, there's a mobile-friendly cards view coming to Excel. And if you just jot up a simple outline, you can quickly convert it into a PowerPoint presentation. From the Credit Win-Windoo department, Ring has officially made two-factor authentication mandatory for its users. It has also paused the use of most third-party analytics services as it tries to come up with ways to limit data sharing with third parties, quoting in gadget. When the feature reaches you this week, you'll always get a six-digit code sent to either your email or, less recommended, SMS in order to complete the login process. This move will seem more than a little familiar because Nest announced a similar requirement just a week earlier, but it's still good news when it promises to raise the baseline security for Ring's smart home devices.

Starting point is 00:12:53 The company will also offer more control over data sharing. It's immediately pausing the use of the majority of third-party analytic services in its apps and website, while it devises more ways to opt out of that sharing in its control center. You should see these tighter controls in early spring. This week, you can also opt out of sharing data for targeted advertising. There's a good chance you'll see some ads regardless, but they won't be aimed at you, end quote. Last year was the year of the unicorn IPO parade. This year, not so much. We're mostly just waiting to see what Airbnb is going to do. But there is going to be a bunch of new IPOs coming soon from a very specific space. a lot of the record labels are planning to go public. Warner Music Group filed to go public two weeks ago. Universal Music Group is planning to IPO in the coming years, it said in a Vivendi earnings report last week,

Starting point is 00:13:53 and there's all sorts of investment and acquisition and merger chatter across the whole industry. Why? Well, suddenly, thanks to music streaming, the music industry is feeling flush and bullish. It's not that record labels are making as much money as they did in the golden olden days before Napster, it's just that the bleeding has stopped and the industry has turned around. The record labels have seen double-digit revenue growth for each of the last few years.

Starting point is 00:14:21 Basically, revenue is growing. The charts are all moving in the right direction, finally. Things are going up, not down, so people are rushing to cash in. And the record companies also seem to have gotten with the times, quoting Axios. The record companies have transformed themselves into music entertainment companies that provide services to all artists at any stage of their career, and regardless of whether they are signed to that label, says Mitch Glazer, chairman and CEO of the recording industry of America in a phone interview with Axios. Quote, that kind of diversification expands revenue options,

Starting point is 00:14:55 creates more opportunity in the industry, and creates more competition, says Glazer. Glazer notes that the record labels today provide everything from social media strategy to merchandising for artists, not just distribution deals. Miller notes that in the digital era, not every artist will rely on a label, for distribution. Quote, labels are much more willing and, in fact, must meet the artists where they are, end quote. Paid subscriptions are now 80% of streaming music revenue, which is up from just 25% only five years ago. So people are finally paying for music again. No wonder the industry is feeling its oats. Still, there could be a natural ceiling to all of this. People don't seem

Starting point is 00:15:38 to be willing to pay anything more than about $10 a month for music subscriptions. And unlike in the video space, you cannot entice people with exclusive content, because if people are paying for music, they want all the music, not just a subsection of it. So once everyone signs up for streaming, this might all hit a brick wall. Quote, I think that's why these companies want to go public now. I think there's some growth limits to this model, says Miller, end quote. And finally today, some sad news. Larry Tesler, the Apple employee who invented cut, copy, and paste, has died at the age of 74, quoting Cult of Mac. Tesla was part of the group of three park employees who met Steve Jobs when Apple got to look around the facility in late 1979. That visit first exposed jobs to the graphical user interface, which Apple later introduced to a mass audience with the Lisa and much more successfully the Macintosh.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Shortly after the Apple demonstration, Tesla quit his job at Xerox. He wound up joining Apple, even though it was still a relatively new startup at the time. Tesla worked first on the Apple Lisa project. This ill-fated computer was the first Apple machine to ship with a mouse and a graphical user interface. Because Tesla had worked with similar technology at Park, he was a natural for the team, end quote. And it was the Lisa that introduced the concept of the clipboard. Tesla originally proposed the names cut and copy for the first step of transitioning things to the clipboard and paste for moving them off the clipboard, a paradigm that he first implemented back at Xerox Park. Click through to the Kultamac piece for more on Tesla's life and a bunch of videos and interviews with him,

Starting point is 00:17:26 and a whole ton of interesting Apple history. So yes, indeed, from the very first day we started launching new ride home podcasts. people have been like, why don't you do a gaming ride home? Seems like a similar space, similar news metabolism in terms of there's a ton of new stuff to catch up on every single day. Well, today I am thrilled to announce the Gaming Ride Home podcast is live. Search your podcast app now and subscribe to it. The idea is the Gaming Ride Home is an exact clone of this show, but focusing specifically on the gaming space. The host is Kyle Hilliard, formerly the Senior Associate Editor at Game Informer,

Starting point is 00:18:13 and the guy who quite literally wrote the book on Zelda. Seriously, look that one up on Amazon. So Kyle knows his stuff. He can give you all the headlines from the gaming world every single day, but also all of the context and background information, just like I try to do here every day. We really feel like these two shows could be very complimentary, Like if you're into gaming and you're into tech, then you can listen to Kyle and me each day,

Starting point is 00:18:40 and you'll know everything there is to know. Does this mean I will stop covering gaming? Absolutely not. When the news merits it, I'll still cover gaming items. It's just that Kyle will be doing so in greater depth and with greater knowledge. So far, the two stories we've both covered since Kyle started last week, Kyle did them completely differently than I did, and in my opinion, he did them better. Also, Kyle will clearly be covering more of the In The Weeds gaming news that I don't get around to.

Starting point is 00:19:09 So again, search your podcast app and subscribe to the Gaming Ride Home podcast and listen every single day. I think these two shows will go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Talk to you tomorrow. This is a rare opportunity from one of our fellow listeners to join a startup still in stealth mode at the co-founder level. As the co-founder, you would receive so. substantial equity in the company rather than being hired on as a regular employee on payroll. This is a startup on a mission to eradicate the obesity epidemic and reduce the insane sugar consumption in the U.S. So it's a startup looking to put a meaningful dent in the universe.

Starting point is 00:19:53 Person's right for this role would have at least 10 years of experience in data science at either an e-commerce, food, or retail company. They'd be familiar with fuzzy logic, deployed services and apps on the cloud and have an advanced degree in mathematics, statistics, or a similar field. If this is you, you would have the opportunity to lead the development of proprietary machine learning, optimization algorithms, natural language processing, and elastic search, and build a scalable and modern database with as many as half a billion, billion with a B, data points. Moreover, you would be able to help bootstrap the company, develop a POC, and raise capital to take it

Starting point is 00:20:33 to the next level. As I say, this is the sort of opportunity that these podcast classifies were designed for. So please, if this is you, follow up by emailing co-founders at iCloud.com. What can it hurt to have a conversation? That's co-founders, C-O-F-O-U-N-D-E-R-S at iCloud.com.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 02/19 - It’s Friggin’ App News Wednesday

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