Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/20 - Give Us More, Santa Tim!

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 TechMeme ride home for Wednesday, March 20th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, the EU Commission hits Google with another billion-euro fine. Santa Tim has another surprise for us this morning with Next Generation AirPods. And in fact, it was a day of quiet upgrades to the Oculus Rift, to the Kindle, even to Facebook Messenger. Also, Movie Pass brings back its unlimited plan for now. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. has fined Google 1.49 billion euros for, quote, abusive practices in online advertising, end quote, and also breaching EU antitrust rules. This makes the third time now that the EU has levied an antitrust fine against Google. Specifically, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, quote,

Starting point is 00:01:27 Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third. third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate, and consumers, the benefits of competition, end quote. Even more specifically, here's how the Verge described the issue, quote. The policy under scrutiny dates back to 2006. Then Google started selling customers its ad sense for search product. This let companies like retailers and newspapers place a Google search box on their website. When visitors used the search box, Google showed them ads and split the commission with the website's owners. But Google also made customers sign contracts for bidding them from

Starting point is 00:02:15 including rival search engines on their sites alongside Google's own. In 2009, Google allowed the inclusion of rival search engines as long as Google's was more prominent. In 2016, around the time the EU announced its case, the company removed these terms altogether, end quote. P.S., Google's now running tab in fines to the EU Commission stands at 8.2 billion euros, or $9.3 billion at this point. In related news, Google has announced some changes stemming from last year's $5 billion fine by EU regulators. In this case, the charge was that Google was, quote, illegally tying Chrome and its search app to Android. Well, in a blog post today, Google's senior vice president of Global Affairs, Kent Walker said that Google, will start asking Android users in Europe to choose their preferred web browser and search apps.

Starting point is 00:03:09 No word on when this choice will begin to be offered. No word on what competing products Google might highlight as alternatives. But Walker wrote, quote, On Android phones, you've always been able to install any search engine or browser you want, irrespective of what came pre-installed on the phone when you bought it. In fact, a typical Android phone user will usually install around 50 additional apps on their phone. now will also do more to ensure that Android phone owners know about the wide choice of browsers and search engines available to download to their phones, end quote.

Starting point is 00:03:48 Facebook has settled with the ACLU over allegedly discriminatory ads for employment, housing, and credit on its ads platform, and announced changes to its ad policy to prevent discrimination in the future. Quoting the New York Times, the company said that anyone advertising housing jobs or credit, three areas where federal law prohibits discrimination in ads would no longer have the option of explicitly aiming ads at people on the basis of those characteristics. The company said it planned to carry out the changes by the end of the year and would pay less than $5 million to settle five lawsuits brought by the groups.

Starting point is 00:04:24 A related complaint by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is still pending. A Facebook spokesman said the company was in discussions with the department to resolve that case. a HUD official did not respond to a request for comment, end quote. Yo, I was not kidding yesterday. Maybe you all should send in your wishes for whatever Apple updates you want to see announced this week because it sure looks like Santa Tim is settling all family business, to quote the godfather. They're clearing the decks at Apple so they can put all of the emphasis on their subscription services announcements next week.

Starting point is 00:05:04 This morning there was another tweet from CEO. cook, and sure enough, new AirPods showed up in the Apple store. The second-generation AirPods are getting a new H-1 chip, hands-free Siri capability, a longer battery life, faster connection to devices, oh, and wireless charging. These new AirPods are now available for $199 with the wireless charging case or with the standard case for $159. And if you're an, a guy, a guy, existing AirPods user, and you just want to have the wireless charging case by itself. You can get that separately for $79. It will apparently work with your existing AirPods, quoting from Apple's press release. The new Apple designed H1 chip features custom audio

Starting point is 00:05:55 architecture to create a revolutionary audio experience and improved synchronization. H1 allows AirPods to deliver up to 50% more talk time compared to the first generation AirPods. Switching between devices while listening to music on iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad is more seamless than ever with two times faster connection times. For the first time, AirPods now feature the convenience of, hey Siri, making it easier to change songs, make a call, adjust the volume, or get directions simply by saying, hey Siri, end quote. So the addition of wireless charging, while long expected, maybe makes it more likely that the mythical air power charging pad is coming soon. Might that be tomorrow's surprise announcement? I actually don't know. I sort of feel like that that's something they'd still want a demo on stage

Starting point is 00:06:45 since it's been so long delayed and so long rumored and so long discussed. But then again, it is just a charging accessory. Maybe that doesn't rise to the bar of an actual on-stage demo. But what else might be coming? Mac Pro spec bumps? I've heard rumors of an iPod. touch upgrade. So I don't know. Let me revise that actually. Tomorrow, I predict, we'll get an iPod touch upgrade. And then on Friday, for a big end of week flourish, that's when we'll get

Starting point is 00:07:20 the air power announcement. If you have personal wishes for Apple updates you'd like to see this week, tweet them at me or post in the podcast subreddit, and then maybe I'll whisper them in Santa Tim's ear on tomorrow's podcast episode. I mean, there are still two days left in the week, so who knows? Oculus today announced the next generation slash replacement slash upgrade to the original Oculus Rift. It's called the Rift S. It will be available this spring and will run you $399. For that price, you'll get a small resolution increase from $1080 by $1,200 to $1280 by 1440. The frame rate is dropping from 90 hertz to 80. There's an updated Oculus Touch controller.

Starting point is 00:08:13 The field of view is slightly larger, and the PC spec requirements remain largely the same. Notable then that the $399 price point is more than the $349 price point that the original Rift had been sitting at for a while. So on, as you'll see in a second, a day of quiet product upgrades, I guess it's fitting that Oculus,

Starting point is 00:08:35 founder Nate Mitchell called the Rift S and, quote, evolution, not a revolution over the original. As TechCrunch notes, this was expected by the VR community, and so we shouldn't expect the VR community to be overly enthused by this particular update. As we reported last year, the Rift S is a product of tradeoffs. It was greenlit only after a more ambitious redesign was canceled by the company. This was a decision former CEO and co-founder Brendan Eribe, strongly repudiated. A source told TechCrunch his departure from the company

Starting point is 00:09:10 was partially due to his lack of interest in, quote, offering compromised experiences that provided short-term user growth but sacrificed on comfort and performance, end quote. On this day when everybody was quietly releasing product updates, why not throw Amazon into the mix? Amazon has upgraded its entry-level Kindle to include a built-in light. Now that light will cost you,

Starting point is 00:09:37 $10 more than before. But if you've never read on a Kindle with a light, believe me, it's a game changer, not just for reading in the dark either. The light actually makes reading in broad sunlight even better as well. Leaving aside the $10 increase in price feature-wise, the entry-level Kindle is basically the same, a 167 pPI display, and this Kindle is now the only device in the lineup not to have waterproofing. The Verge recommends, and I agree, if you're in the market for your first Kindle, just invest in the paperwhite. Better screen, same light, and waterproofing for just a couple dozen bucks more. Not a full product update, but a feature update, but given today, what the heck? Facebook Messenger is beginning to roll out threaded messages, quoting from Venture Beat.

Starting point is 00:10:35 Long pressing on the text to which you want to reply and tapping on the reply. icon kicks things off. You're able to respond to individual jiffs, videos, emoji, text, and photo messages. And thankfully, replies don't interfere with the text thread. The original message remains visible after it's been responded to, end quote. Movie pass update. Movie pass is still alive, and in fact, its vaunted unlimited plan is actually back from the dead for now. And with some series caveats. Quoting Polygon, Movie Pass uncapped provides subscribers with a ticket

Starting point is 00:11:18 for any 2D movie within the Movie Pass app at any theater. The plan will have a price of $19.95 per month, but anyone willing to pay for a year up front can get a limited time price of $9.95 a month. While the plan does remove most of the restrictions

Starting point is 00:11:36 Movie Pass introduced in the last few months, the company's website does offer a few qualifications about uncapped. One particularly large qualification could even mean that users are locked out of certain movies depending on how often they use the service. According to the plan's terms, quote, movie pass has the right to limit the selection of movies and or the time of available movies should your individual use adversely impact movie pass's system-wide capacity or the availability of the service for other subscribers, end quote. The plans fine print also specifies

Starting point is 00:12:10 that MoviePass may use proprietary algorithms and data it collects to impose specific restrictions on individual users, end quote. Real quick, since I did this yesterday, the second to last link in the show notes today is to TechCrunch's roundup of the 88 companies that demoed yesterday at Y Combinators Winter 2019 Demo Day 2. Again, there were two stages with the demos running concurrently. And I did not know this, but they're not running the demo days at the Computer History Museum, as they have done in the past. Now they're held in some massive warehouse in San Francisco somewhere. So yeah, I guess these really are massive startup classes now if you basically need to hold them in a hangar. Finally today, Boston-based Optimus Ride says it will deploy its autonomous shuttle service beginning in Q2 of this year in the Brooklyn. Navy Yard.

Starting point is 00:13:18 Quoting from The Verge. To be sure, robot cars won't be jockeying for space in Times Square anytime soon. Optimus rides, autonomous shuttles will run in closed loops on private roads within the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a private 300-acre World War II-era factory that's in the midst of a high-tech reinvention. The shuttle service will be available to around 8,500 people who work at the Navy Yard's various heavy and light manufacturing businesses, as well as future passengers. of New York City's East River Ferry Service,

Starting point is 00:13:49 which is planning on opening a new dock at the Navy Yard in early 2019, end quote. Optimus Ride is that startup that is planning to provide autonomous vehicles to retirement communities, for example, one in Northern California quite soon. But here's the thing about this story. If I were to stand up and walk out the front door of the building

Starting point is 00:14:09 I'm sitting in right now, I am three blocks from one of the entrances to the Navy Yard. You can't just waltz right in. You need a pass. I have gotten in there before for various meetings. But look, I'm right here. So if anyone from Optimus Ride or the Navy Yard is listening, let me in. Let me take a trip on one of these babies when they launch.

Starting point is 00:14:33 And I will report back on the experience to this podcast audience. Not saying that this will satisfy my running bet of real AVs in use on real roads by 2020, but it would certainly get us closer. So, yeah, on Monday, I Insta bought an iPad Mini, and I Insta bought a refreshed IMac yesterday. I did not Insta buy the AirPods today, even though they are my favorite tech product of the last couple years. What I did have to also buy this week

Starting point is 00:15:10 was a new external monitor because the external monitor I used to produce this show stopped working. It would turn on, but, never actually show a screen. So I quickly ordered a replacement via one-day shipping because, man, Monday? Trying to do this show all on a tiny MacBook Pro screen? I really underestimated how much I use that huge external 27-inch monitor to read articles up over there while writing the script down here on the laptop screen.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Anyway, there's a reason why I'm telling you all this. So the replacement monitor arrived yesterday. I hooked it up and oh no's it wasn't showing a desktop either what happened was it my laptop why is the MacBook not recognizing external monitors I quickly Googled around started to look into resetting the max system management controller etc but before I started to do all that it occurred to me to just reboot the laptop and guess what after the reboot it all just worked again external monitors had a desktop and the original external monitor wasn't even broken at all. My laptop wasn't broken.

Starting point is 00:16:22 It just needed to be turned off and turned back on again. And boom, it recognized external devices like it always had. So now I have two external monitors, which I wasn't planning on having. But hey, I'm fine with that. But I've told you all of this because the moral of the story is if your devices start giving you trouble, before you do anything super drastic, never forget the old. tried and true reboot. Sometimes that's all you need. Or just giving it a good whack like we used to do with TVs when they started acting up or just blowing on it like you did with an old Nintendo

Starting point is 00:16:58 cartridge. Don't try to outsmart your tech. Don't forget the reboot. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/20 - Give Us More, Santa Tim!

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