Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 06/16 – A Nightmare FTC Chair For Big Tech?

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

Lina Khan has not only been confirmed as FTC commissioner, she’s also been named FTC chair. Waymo raises a big new round, which is soops interesting. Spotify joins the audio rooms sweepstakes. A Windows 11 build leaks. And forget Apple Stores, would you visit an actual Apple Health Clinic? Sponsors: Tovala.com/ride Cybereason.com Links: Biden Names Lina Khan, a Big-Tech Critic, as F.T.C. Chair (New York Times) Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo announces $2.5 billion investment round (CNBC) GM ups spending on EVs and autonomous vehicles by 30% to $35 billion by 2025 on higher profits (CNBC) Spotify launches its live audio app and Clubhouse rival, Spotify Greenroom (Tech Crunch) Windows 11 leak reveals new UI, Start menu, and more (The Verge) Apple Struggles in Push to Make Healthcare Its Greatest Legacy (Wall Street Journal) 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 TechMeme right home for Wednesday, June 16th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Lena Khan has not only been confirmed as an FTC commissioner, she's also been named the FTC chair. Waymo raises a big new round, which is soups interesting. Spotify joins the audio room's sweepstakes,

a Windows 11 build leaks, and forget Apple stores. Would you visit an actual Apple health clinic? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Yesterday, the United States Senate voted 69 to 28 to confirm Lena Kahn a seat on the Federal Trade Commission that was expected. Ms. Kahn's confirmation was not really in doubt. What was somewhat surprising was the news that President Biden then named Kahn, the antitrust theorist who has done more than anyone else to advance the idea that antitrust needs to move beyond mere price and consumer harm to consider the question of market distortion by firms of large. size in a market as the actual chair of the FTC, quoting the New York Times. Ms. Conn, 32, was sworn in on Tuesday, making her the youngest chair in the FTC's history. I look forward to working with my colleagues to protect the public from corporate abuse,

she said in a statement. In her new role, Ms. Con will lead efforts to regulate the kind of behavior highlighted for years by critics of Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple. She told a Senate committee in April that she was worried about the way tech companies could use their power to dominate new markets. The agency is investigating Amazon, which Ms. Khan has been highly critical of, and filed an antitrust suit against Facebook last year. Her appointment was a victory for progressive activists who want Mr. Biden to take a hard line against big companies. He also gave a White House job to Tim Wu, a law professor who has criticized the power of the tech giants. The president has yet to appoint someone to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division,

another top regulator of the industry. The decision to make Ms. Khan, the agency's chairwoman, gives her control over its agenda, staff, and proceedings. The four other commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans, vote on major matters and produce statements, but the chairwoman is essentially the agency's chief executive. All five commission members are appointed by the president for seats with seven-year terms, although agency leaders often leave along with the president who appointed them. The term for Ms. Khan's seat expires. in September 2024. Ms. Kahn signaled at her April confirmation hearing that she intends to carry her concerns about the tech giants into her role at the agency. She told lawmakers she saw a,

quote, whole range of potential risks around the tech companies, quote, one that comes up across the board is that the ability to dominate one market gives companies in some instances, the ability to expand into adjacent markets, she said. She also said regulators should apply more scrutiny to mergers involving the companies, end quote. So, you know, da-da-da, good summation of the tea leaves we can read in this news by Josh Wolfe on Twitter, quote, Lena Khan bout to Joel Klein this MF, easiest money bet that she makes a name for herself. Bad for anyone looking to exit in the near term to a fang company. Amazing for startups seeking to compete.

In a few years, this will all abate, especially with China competition. till then, giddy up, end quote. I would also point this out. There was a time when Khan would be seen as a far-left nominee by some Republicans. The fact that this vote turned out the way it did shows how quickly the tech antitrust crusade has become at least a relatively bipartisan issue. Very interesting raise. Waymo has gotten $2.5 billion in fresh capital from Alphabet, a 16.

Z, Tiger Global, a whole bunch of others, to advance its autonomous driving tech and grow its team. This is interesting because, well, to say the seeming momentum behind self-driving tech has slowed lately is putting it mildly. Over the last few months alone, I could have shared with you maybe a half a dozen long reeds, concern trolling about how self-driving cars might still be a decade away, how the momentum of the tech has slowed, how maybe the tech is impossible, and we might not see self-driving cars at all. add to that some recent high-profile executive departures from a lot of these self-driving companies, especially Waymo, and, well, it's worrying stuff if you're a self-driving bull. So, this is an interesting vote of confidence by some big, big money, confidence in Waymo, at least. Quote,

The funding round follows the departure of Waymo CEO John Craftchick in April and criticism that the company is moving slower than expected toward commercialization of its technology. Waymo and other self-driving companies have found adoption to be. be more difficult than expected. The company, for example, still largely relies on human safety drivers as of this summer. Waymo is one of Alphabet's other bets that continues to lose money, and the latest funding shows the company is increasingly relying on other investors to help support the unit. Waymo has already deployed its autonomous vehicles in Phoenix as a ride-hailing service. The company's delivery unit, Waymo Via, is also working with freight partners and delivery clients like UPS to

transport goods. Waymo previously raised $2.25 billion in its first external funding round last year. Prior to that, Alphabet supported the business itself, as it does the rest of its other bets. But the funding move showed Waymo sought even more capital, end quote. Somewhat related, GM says it will spend $35 billion through 2025 on its electric and autonomous vehicle efforts, a 30% increase from earlier plans. quoting CNBC again. We are investing aggressively in a comprehensive and highly integrated plan to make sure that GM leads in all aspects of the transformation to a more sustainable future. GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement, GM's plans to expand its electric and autonomous vehicle

lineup and technology have been praised by Wall Street. Its stock has almost tripled since reaching a 12-month low of $23.33 last July. Shares were trading up slightly before markets opened Wednesday at about $61 a share. GM said the new investments are enabled by its strong underlying business, including record pre-tax earnings over the last three quarters. GM's increased spending plans come less than a month after Crosstown rival Ford Motor increased its EV spending to more than $30 billion by 2025. But Ford's investments date back to 2016, while GMs are from 2020 through 2025, end quote. Seems like this is a day of interesting moves on various chess boards.

Spotify is launching Spotify Green Room, a new app that allows Spotify users worldwide to join or host live audio rooms, and then turn those conversations into podcasts, quoting TechCrunch. In March, Spotify announced it was acquiring the company behind the sports-focused audio app locker room to help speed its entry into the live audio market. Today, the company is making good on that deal with the launch of Spotify Green Room, a new mobile app that allows Spotify users worldwide to join or host live audio rooms and optionally turn those conversations into podcasts. It's also announcing a creator fund which will help to fuel the new app with more content in the future. The Spotify greenroom app itself is based on locker room's existing code. In fact, Spotify tells us,

current locker room users will see their app update to become the rebranded and redesigned greenroom experience starting today. To join the new app, Spotify, users will sign in with their current Spotify account information. They'll then be walked through an onboarding experience designed to connect them with their interests. For the time being, the process of finding audio rooms to listen to relies primarily on users joining groups inside the app. That's much like how locker room had operated where its users would find and follow favorite sports teams. However, Green Room's groups are more general interests now and it's no longer tied to sports. In time, Spotify tells us the plan is for Green Room to leverage Spotify's personalization technology to better connect users to content they would want to hear.

For example, it could send out notifications to users if a podcaster you already followed on Spotify went live on Spotify Green Room, or it could leverage its understanding of what sort of podcasts and music you listen to in order to make targeted recommendations. These are longer-term plans, however. As for Spotify Green Room's feature set, it's largely on par with other live. audio offerings, including those from Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Facebook Live Audio Rooms. Speakers in the room appear at the top of the screen as rounded profile icons, while listeners appear below as smaller icons. There are mute options, moderation controls, and the ability to bring listeners on stage during the live audio session. Rooms can host up to 1,000 people,

and Spotify expects to scale that number up later on, end quote. Microsoft's announced event where they will unveil the, quote, next generation. of Windows is still a week away, but a Windows 11 build has already leaked, showing a revamped UI, like a new taskbar with centered app icons and a whole lot more, quoting the verge. The new Windows 11 user interface and start menu look very similar to what was originally found in Windows 10x. Microsoft had been simplifying Windows for dual-screen devices before canceling this project in favor of Windows 11. Visually, the biggest changes you'll notice can be found along the task bar. Microsoft has centered the app icons here, cleaned up the tray area,

and included a new start button in menu. This updated start menu is a simplified version of what currently exists in Windows 10 without live tiles. It includes pinned apps, recent files, and the ability to quickly shut down or restart Windows 11 devices. It's really a lot more simplified than what exists in Windows 10 today. If you don't want the app icons and start menu centered, there's an option to move them all back to the left-hand side, coupled with the dark mode that's also available, and Windows 11 starts to look a lot more like a refined version of Windows 10 than something dramatically new. Microsoft is also using rounded corners throughout Windows 11. These are visible in context menus and around apps and the File Explorer. The start menu itself also includes rounded corners. This is still an early version of Windows 11 that has leaked, so not everything is included yet. We're expecting to see more changes to the built-in apps within Windows 11, but most of these don't appear to be present yet.

A large part of the operating system feels finished, though, so we'd expect to see a beta of this to arrive shortly for Windows Insiders to test, end quote. Well, heck, as I said, since it's been a whole bunch of strategic stories today, let's end with this strategic nugget. Sources are telling the Wall Street Journal that some of Apple's health care efforts included a, pilot of a primary health care service with actual Apple employed doctors, though those efforts may have stalled due to various internal concerns. Quoting from the Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Tim Cook has said the company's greatest contribution to mankind will be in health. So far, some Apple initiatives aimed at broadly disrupting the health care sector have struggled to gain traction, however, according to people familiar with them, and documents reviewed by

the Wall Street Journal. Apple has envisioned an audacious plan for health care, offering its own primary care medical service with Apple employed doctors at its own clinics, according to people familiar with the plan and documents. To test that and other bold healthcare ideas, it took over clinics that catered to its employees and built a team with scores of clinicians, engineers, product designers, and others. Today, those ambitions, which aren't widely known, have largely stalled as Apple has shifted the focus of its health unit to something it knows well, selling devices, specifically the Apple Watch, according to people familiar with its strategy. The new primary care service hasn't gotten off the ground, people familiar with it, say, a digital health app launched quietly this year,

has struggled to keep users engaged, say people familiar with the app and the documents seen by the journal. Some employees have raised questions internally about the integrity of health data coming from the company's clinics that has been used to support product development, according to people familiar with their concerns and the documents. One of its most ambitious healthcare ideas was a plan to offer primary care medicine conceived in 2016, according to documents and the people familiar with the plan. An Apple team spent months trying to figure out how the flood of health and wellness data collected from users of its smartwatch first released in 2015 might be used to improve health care,

the people said. Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who oversees the health team, urged employees to think big. He said Apple should disrupt what you. he called the 363 and break-fix models of care in the U.S., where patients may not see their doctors 363 days a year, and only visit when something goes wrong, according to people familiar with his ideas. The team decided one of the best ways to realize that vision was to provide a medical service of its own, said people familiar with the plan, linking data generated by Apple's devices with virtual and in-person care provided by Apple doctors. Apple would offer primary care,

but also continuous health monitoring as part of a subscription-based personalized health program, according to these people and the documents. If Apple could prove that its combination of device sensors, software, and services could improve people's health and lower costs, the company could franchise the model to health care systems and even other countries, according to the documents. To start, Apple chose to test the service out on its own employees. Apple took over employee health clinics near its headquarters that were being run by a startup and turn them into test beds for new health services, say people familiar with the changes.

In 2017, it hired Dr. Sumbull D'Sai from Stanford University to run the effort, which was given the code named Casper, said the people familiar with the plan. The effort continues today, but Apple has struggled to move Casper past a preliminary stage, say people familiar with its operations. Dr. Desai's unit, in particular, has seen multiple departures by employees who say its culture discourages critical feedback, which is potentially problematic for, a unit focused on products and services related to personal health, according to people familiar with its culture and the documents. Some employees express concerns that internal data about the clinic's performance, data that was recently used to support the rollout of a new digital health app,

has been inaccurate or complied haphazardly, according to people familiar with the data. Those issues have been repeatedly voiced to Mezzar's Cook and Williams, according to the documents and people familiar with the issues, end quote. So that sort of puts Apple's moves toward services revenue in a new light, right? But weirdly, this kind of makes sense who's further ahead in wearables than Apple is, who has as big an ecosystem in terms of, you know, mothership computing devices and monitoring devices in everybody's pockets. But I don't know. It's a weird article all the way around. Do you buy the idea of Apple doing its own clinics? I mean, you thought it was counterintuitive when they opened actual retail stores. So it's a good thing we didn't wait for the

Nintendo event yesterday, because it was a big nothing burger. Not only was there no new hardware announced, like nothing much at all was announced. I don't know what's been going on with tech events lately. Nobody seems to have anything to say. They're a big waste of time. Maybe the COVID Times hangover is real. It's weird. Anyway, maybe we'll talk about that tonight.

Twitter space, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. Look for it. Join us. Talk to you tomorrow.