Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/25 - Google Podcasts Comes To iOS

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, March 25th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough today. How Facebook is coping with Corona.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Google Podcasts comes to iOS. Ad blocking officially comes to Safari. When Apple thinks it can reopen stores, Singapore open sources its Corona contact tracing app, and have your screen time notifications horrified you this week? You're not alone. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. While traffic is surging on Facebook,

Starting point is 00:01:06 where it's seen messaging alone, up 50% from last month in many countries. There are also increasing signs that Facebook's 45,000 employees now working remotely, are struggling to keep up. This is sort of just a snapshot profile of Facebook at this moment in time from the New York Times. The usage growth from COVID-19 is unprecedented across the industry, and we are experiencing new records in usage almost every day, Alex Schultz and Jay Parake, two Facebook vice presidents working on infrastructure said in a blog post on Tuesday. Quote, maintaining stability throughout these spikes in usage is more challenging than usual now that most of our employees are working from home, end quote.

Starting point is 00:01:47 What has saved Facebook's network from crashing altogether, Mr. Zuckerberg said, was that the virus and the quarantines have had the largest impact in just a few areas where Facebook operates. Facebook is banned in China, where the virus first appeared, for instance. Those areas that have the highest concentration of people using Facebook services during peak hours from home are also spread out by time zone, Mr. Zuckerberg said, which staggers the swell of traffic, end quote. And then outlining the work from home challenges for the company, quote, Last week, a bug within Facebook system began marking thousands of posts by major news outlets like Politico and the Sydney Morning Herald as spam, which resulted in the removal of the posts. It took Facebook a day to correct the mistake as engineers struggled to communicate. remotely with one another over how the bug had been introduced and what it would take to fix it. While they scrambled, rumors spread among Facebook's users over the source of the bug with many

Starting point is 00:02:39 accusing the company of censoring people's speech. Internally, Facebook's managers said that while the bug was routine, the amount of time it took to fix it was not, end quote. According to an internal report seen by the Times, Facebook believes that U.S. users are reading more COVID-19 content from higher-quality sources at this point, based on its, ranking of top publishers, which it adopted last year. Quote, as of Thursday, more than half the articles being consumed on Facebook in the United States were related to the coronavirus, according to an internal report obtained by the New York Times. Overall, U.S. traffic from Facebook to other websites also increased by more than 50% last week

Starting point is 00:03:19 from the week before, quote, almost entirely owing to intense interest in the virus, the report said. The report, which was posted to Facebook's internal network by Ranjan Subram, a data scientist at the company, was a lengthy analysis of what it called, quote, unprecedented increases in consumption of news articles on Facebook over the past several weeks, end quote. I myself still can't get it to come up for me on the app store, but Google has finally brought its podcast app to iOS, while at the same time unveiling a redesign of the Android version of the app, making users listening habits syncable across platforms like Google Podcasts for the web,

Starting point is 00:04:03 Quoting TechCrunch. The revamped version of the app is centered around discovery, broken up into three primary tabs. There's Home, which features your current feeds, Explore, which offers up popular and curated shows, and activity, which offers a deeper dive into listening habits. Honestly, though, the big news here is that the app is finally landing on the iOS App Store. Launch last summer, the app quickly became the top podcasting app on Android

Starting point is 00:04:29 because, well, Google. There's been some limited cross-platform availability, by way of a browser. Obviously, though, native app support is much more appealing for iPhone and iPad owners looking to see what kind of alternative Google is offering to Apple's own popular podcast app, end quote. Well, turnabouts because Apple has beaten Google to the punch on something by a couple of years. Apple has updated Safari to fully block third-party cookies by default. Months after Google said it would do the same thing for its Chrome browser in 2020. 22. Quote, cookies for cross-site resources are now blocked by default across the board. This is a

Starting point is 00:05:14 significant improvement for privacy since it removes any sense of exceptions or a little bit of cross-site tracking is allowed. Apple's John Willander, the WebKit engineer behind the feature noted in the announcement post on the blog for WebKit, which is Apple's in-house browser engine that powers many of its features under the hood. Willander notes that users might not notice a big change because ITP has been doing this more or less already. It might seem like a bigger change than it is, but we've added so many restrictions to ITP since its initial release in 2017 that we are now at a place where most third-party cookies are already blocked in Safari.

Starting point is 00:05:53 Apple first launched ITP within Safari nearly three years ago, where it immediately set a new bar for web privacy standards on both desktop and mobile by blocking some, but not all, cookies by default. Alongside the substantial privacy work of Mozilla's Firefox, which also blocks third-party cookies by default as of last summer, Apple has been pioneering a machine learning approach to web tracking prevention that has made Safari one of the most widely used and secure web tools available. In addition to blocking third-party cookies across the board and by default, Willander says, ITP now has safeguards against trackers using the very nature of tracking prevention as a way to keep tabs on users. He adds that the new feature set also ensures that websites and trackers can't use login IDs

Starting point is 00:06:39 to digitally fingerprint users who might otherwise be using tracking prevention or other privacy tools. Quote, full third-party cookie blocking makes sure there's no ITP state that can be detected through cookie blocking behavior. We'd like to again thank Google for initiating this analysis through their report, he writes, referring to Google's research published earlier this year on ITP that revealed the possibility of using some elements of it as a fingerprint. Apple had to disable the Do Not Track Feature in Safari in 2019 for similar reasons, end quote. Apple's senior vice president of People and Retail, Diedra O'Brien,

Starting point is 00:07:21 has said in an internal memo that Apple expects to start reopening its retail stores in the first half of April, but on a staggered rolling basis, quoting Mark German and Bloomberg, the memo to employees also said that remote work would be extended. after Apple's global offices outside of China were closed earlier this month. Quote, in all our offices outside of Greater China, we are extending flexible work arrangements for all team members outside of those whose work requires them to be on site through at least April 5th, which will then be re-evaluated weekly, depending on your location, O'Brien told staff in the memo sent this week.

Starting point is 00:07:57 O'Brien said Apple is, quote, putting the health of our teams, customers, and communities first, end quote. It's a bit two steps forward. step back at the moment. No sooner have we heard stories that factories are reopening in China. Then, iPhone makers such as Foxcon and Wistran, have announced that they have been forced to suspend all production in their plants in India in order to comply with last night's recently announced nationwide lockdown in that country. Quoting Debbie Wu at Bloomberg, Foxconn, also known as Han High Precision Industry, is suspending operations in India until April 14th,

Starting point is 00:08:40 the company said in a text message to Bloomberg News. It intends to resume India production based on further government announcements. A Wistran representative said the company is also adhering to the order while declining to comment on exactly what products are affected. Foxconn and Wistran are key manufacturing partners to many of the world's largest electronics names. While neither company said which products have been affected, their Indian facilities mainly crank out older iPhone models or produce gadgets primarily aimed at the domestic market. Wistran's Chairman Simon Lynn said on an earnings call on Wednesday that he believes lockdowns in countries where the company operates, including India and Malaysia, will only be a short-term issue as

Starting point is 00:09:19 Wistran doesn't have labor shortage problems there, and production can be resumed quickly once restrictions are lifted. Still, the closures underscore how Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise announcement of a 21-day lockdown, the most far-reaching measure undertaken by any government to curb the coronavirus pandemic thus far may affect the operations of global technology giants in one of the world's fastest growing markets for devices, end quote. As people continue to discuss employing cell phones and surveillance technology to track and combat the coronavirus outbreak, the government of Singapore has announced that it will open source its contact tracking app called Traced Together, which uses Bluetooth to identify

Starting point is 00:10:06 people in extended close contact with COVID-19 patients. Traced Together has already been downloaded by more than 620,000 people. Quote, launch last Friday, the Traced Together app can identify people who have been within two meters of coronavirus patients for at least 30 minutes using wireless Bluetooth technology. Its developers say the app is useful when those infected cannot recall whom they had been in close proximity with for an extended duration. For the app to start tracing, the Bluetooth setting on. mobile phones has to be turned on. If a user gets infected, the authorities will be able to quickly

Starting point is 00:10:41 find out the other users he has been in close contact with, allowing for easier identification of potential cases and helping to curb the spread of the virus. After that, official contact tracers will provide a code that users can match with a corresponding verification code on their app. Once authenticated, users will get a pin that allows data to be submitted. Quote, we believe that making our code available to the world will enhance trust and collaboration in deep. dealing with a global threat that does not respect boundaries, political systems, or economies, said Dr. Vivian Belichrishnan, who is also foreign minister in that country. Quote, together we can make the world safer for everyone, end quote.

Starting point is 00:11:25 This feels like a headline from a completely different time. A federal court in New York has issued a preliminary injunction against Telegram, and its $1.7 billion initial coin offering, which happened back in 2018. The court found the distribution of gram tokens in the ICO likely violated U.S. security laws, quoting from the block. In particular, the court ruled that considering the economic realities under the Howie test, the court finds that in the context of the scheme, the resale of grams into the secondary public market would be an integral part of the sale of securities without a required registration statement, end quote.

Starting point is 00:12:05 Applying the well-established Howie test to the facts and circumstances of the fundraising effort, The court further found that reasonable purchasers would not be willing to pay $1.7 billion to acquire grams merely as a means of storing or transferring value. Instead, Telegram developed a scheme to maximize the amount initial purchasers would be willing to pay Telegam by creating a structure to allow those purchasers to maximize the value they received upon resale in the public markets, end quote. The Graham tokens were offered in a so-called SAFT, or maybe SAFT document or a simple agreement for future tokens. The concept was that while the SAFT was itself an investment contract and a security,

Starting point is 00:12:48 the future tokens, when offered for use on a functional network, would not be. This is the first major federal court ruling to analyze this issue, and if other courts follow suit, it may create significant roadblocks for other SAFT issuers, end quote. Finally today, maybe you've experienced this for yourself, as more and more people are working and living in isolation during this pandemic. Tools like Apple's screen time are maybe alerting you that, you know, your time online has been skyrocketing lately, quoting the Washington Post. Eric K. Singy, a Houston-based doctor, tweeted his report showing his screen time had increased 185% to an average of 8 hours and 32 minutes a day with the caption, not sure how I feel about this, end quote. Singy told the post via DM that the rise in our collective screen time is natural in a time that

Starting point is 00:13:45 finds people still wanting to remain connected despite the recommendation to maintain a physical distance, end quote. Caledonia, Michigan-based clinical psychologist Nicole Birkins, who's a brand ambassador for the parental control software, Costido, points out, quote, there are also many adults working from home now and schools putting online platforms in place, all of which requires more time in front of screens, end quote. The average adult spends about three and a half hours a day using the internet on their phones, according to a 2019 study from the analytics company Zenith, as Fox reported.

Starting point is 00:14:17 Android phones track screen time, but don't send a report. The post has also put in an inquiry with Apple on whether overall screen time has increased in recent days. Studies show that increased screen time can lead to a number of maladies ranging from the physical, like eye strain, neck strain, obesity, to the mental, like anxiety, depression. Experts agreed that a few weeks probably won't cause too much damage, but it's unclear how long our quarantine might last. So it's important to take stock of how it might be affecting you. People should, quote, be intentional about taking breaks, Berkin said. And parents, quote, need to be aware of how much time kids are spending on their screens, end quote.

Starting point is 00:14:57 I would encourage a balanced approach, Stingie said. Balance increased screen time with a walk or a hike so long as you maintain the six feet apart rule and you aren't being quarantined, end quote. So, you know, whatever. I'm sorry, we need less online time right now. Okay, you first, everybody else. Like, there's just too much going on right now for me to even be remotely willing to be screen time shamed right now. A couple listeners got in touch overnight to say that they were

Starting point is 00:15:32 successfully able to buy my book on Apple Books in Europe. So maybe if you're overseas, try Apple Books if you're interested. Again, it's called How the Internet Happened. And it's by me, Brian McCullough. It's only $2.99 this week for a limited time, or I guess the equivalent, whatever that is in your currency. Also, on the Corona show today, I'm reading ads for a therapy app, which I won't name here. But that made me think there's probably a lot of you out there that could use some mental help right now in this stressful time period. So on this show, I wanted to point you to the therapist that I myself talk to every week. Obviously, all of our sessions are over the phone right now, so, you know, wherever you are, you could talk to him. If that's you, if you'd like someone to talk to,

Starting point is 00:16:24 if you could use some therapy, even if it's just for the time being, email me at brianatridehome. And I'll put you in touch with my guy. I've been seeing him for nine years now. Cannot recommend him highly enough. Talk to you tomorrow, everybody.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 03/25 - Google Podcasts Comes To iOS

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.