Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 07/22 - Samsung Announces the Galaxy Z Flip 5G

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, July 22nd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Samsung announces the Galaxy Z Flip 5G. TikTok's U.S.-based investors are considering buying it out as a last resort. Slack files an antitrust complaint against Microsoft. Fiat Chrysler signs a deal with Waymo that points to the pivot we were just talking about, and an interesting raise involving ugly fruit.

Starting point is 00:00:59 Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Hey, remember foldable phones? Actually, before we get to that, remember phone announcements full stop? Well, get ready because we're entering phone announce season soon. Actually, maybe it's kicking off today because Samsung has announced the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, available on AT&T and T-Mobile here in the US, shipping August 7th all for around $1,450, quoting the verge. The phone is nearly identical to its 4G predecessor. The major changes include the 5G radios, a slightly upgraded Snapdragon 865 plus processor, and the price. It's $1,449.99. That's a $70 premium over the 4G version, which Samsung says will stick around at the same price. Samsung is probably smart not to change the formula up too

Starting point is 00:01:56 much on the Z-flip. Maybe it's saving its R&D efforts for the Galaxy Fold 2. That device is rumored to be coming soon, as are a bunch of other Samsung devices like the Note 20 Ultra and new Galaxy Buds. Samsung has an event plan for August 5th, and we're expecting some or all of those devices to be announced, end quote. If you need a refresher, though, on what the Z flip is, this is the foldable phone that looks like it's a cute, chunky little square when it's folded up. unfolded, it is a bit like a sizable candy bar, very tall and rectangular. And one of the selling points was that it could sit half open, sort of like a tiny laptop would. Samsung called that the flex mode, quoting again from the verge. Samsung says it hasn't changed the external form factor at all

Starting point is 00:02:48 in order to fit 5G into the phone. It will also come in two colors, Mystic gray and Mystic Bronze. The mystic part apparently refers to a new haze finish on the exterior glass that Samsung says is soft to the touch. So, Matt. Along with the slightly updated processor and 5G, which supports sub-6 only and not millimeter wave, Samsung has also added a handful of minor software enhancements. It already has a flex mode that lets software reconfigure itself when the phone is half-folded. YouTube should properly go into a flex mode now, and Samson, Samsung's camera app will work at more angles so you could theoretically point it at the sky.

Starting point is 00:03:29 Samsung also says the edge panel feature is, quote, more robust, which hopefully means that the Z-flip will get a standard full-featured Galaxy Edge panel instead of limiting it to multi-window controls, end quote. Twitter has announced a major crackdown on QAnon accounts, banning more than 7,000 of QAnon related accounts over the last two weeks and limiting the reach of QAnon content on Twitter more broadly, quoting NBC News. Twitter will stop recommending accounts and content related to Q&N, including material in email and follow recommendations, and it will take steps to limit circulation of content in features like trends and search. The action will affect about 150,000 accounts, said a spokesperson

Starting point is 00:04:16 who asked to remain unnamed because of concerns about the targeted harassment of social media employees. The sweeping enforcement action will ban Q&N-related terms from appearing in trending topics and the platform's search feature ban known Q&N-related URLs and prohibit, quote, swarming of people who are baselessly targeted by coordinated harassment campaigns pushed by Q&N followers. The spokesperson said that while the targeted enforcement fell under Twitter's existing platform manipulation rules, its classification of Q&N material and behavior as coordinated harmful activity was a new designation. The spokesperson said Twitter was acting now because of rising harm associated with the conspiracy theory. Twitter plans to permanently ban accounts that violate policies around platform manipulation, evasion of bans and operation of multiple accounts,

Starting point is 00:05:06 behaviors commonly used by QAnon accounts, the spokesperson said. Twitter began blocking Q&on websites last week, and it will continue to block the distribution of Q&on-related URLs, the spokesperson said, end quote. The information is reporting that a small group of bite-d-d-dampers, U.S. investors are discussing a last-ditch emergency possible joining of forces in order to buy up a majority stake in TikTok, likely in hopes of heading off some sort of U.S. government ban of the social platform, quoting the information. The talks appear to be preliminary, and the idea is just one possible scenario by Dantz is examining as it explores ways of dealing with a possible U.S. ban or forced divestiture of the app, the people said.

Starting point is 00:05:55 U.S. government pressure on BightDance is growing steadily. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to bar all federal employees from loading TikTok onto their government-issued phones. BiteDance's founder and CEO Zhang Yaming is open to a sale if that is what is best for the future of the app, the information previously reported. Under the idea being discussed, a group of existing BightDance shareholders, possibly including Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, SoftBank, and New Enterprise Associates, would collectively buy the majority stake, said people familiar with the idea. Bight Dance may continue to own a minority stake, although probably without board representation. The investors hope would be to take TikTok public at some point in the future so they could eventually sell their stake, the people said. Several issues remain unresolved, and it isn't clear

Starting point is 00:06:41 if all investors are behind the idea or whether it is being driven by a handful of them. One question is whether the government would allow Bight Dance to continue owning even a minority stake. Another is whether the investors would buy all of TikTok, just the U.S. operations, or the U.S. and India operations together. TikTok has already been banned in India, its biggest market by users, due to tensions between the Chinese and Indian governments. A bite dance spokesperson declined to comment. The discussions have involved Zhang, the people said, along with Sequoia Capital China, founding partner Neil Shen, who sits on BiteDance's board. If the idea were to go forward, TikTok's current management, including newly appointed CEO Kevin Mayer, a former Walt Disney executive,

Starting point is 00:07:24 would remain in place, according to the people involved in the discussion, end quote. Remember how I said yesterday that Microsoft had not even been asked to come before that congressional committee looking into antitrust questions? And remember how, nonetheless, Microsoft spoke to Congress anyway to talk about what it's like when you face antitrust scrutiny from the government, even though at the moment no one was actually accusing Microsoft of acting anti-competitively. Yeah, well, join the party, I guess. Slack has filed an EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft,

Starting point is 00:08:03 accusing it of unfairly bundling its rival app called Teams with its Office 365 Tool Suite, thereby competing unfairly with Slack, which only has its Slack product that it can't bundle with anything else. Quoting the New York Times, Slack threatens Microsoft's hold-on-business email, the cornerstone of office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft's lock on enterprise software. Jonathan Prince, Vice President of Communications and Policy at Slack said in a statement. Slack's complaint is just a first step. The European Commission must assess the complaint to see if a formal investigation is warranted. In recent years, European regulators

Starting point is 00:08:42 have more aggressively pursued antitrust actions against large tech companies than American and regulators, end quote. So this pretty much straight up echoes the whole antitrust case against Microsoft of 20 years ago. Slack is accusing Microsoft of illegal software tying and software bundling. But hey, if Microsoft does have to end up arguing against this, I mean, I suppose they can just dust off all the old arguments from 20 years ago, right? Get ready for the old, is it just a feature, or is it a completely separate product debate? Fiat Chrysler. has signed an exclusive deal with Waymo to develop self-driving technology, which is notable because Fiat Chrysler just had an 18-month relationship with the Amazon-backed self-driving startup

Starting point is 00:09:33 Aurora. I guess that deal has lapsed. But also note this from TechCrunch, because it ties in almost exactly to what we were talking about yesterday. Quote, Waymo and Fiat Chrysler automobiles have inked a deal to develop and test autonomous cargo vans and other light commercial vehicles. designed to shuttle goods. The agreement is an expansion of a partnership that kicked off four years ago with a focus on self-driving Pacifica hybrid minivans meant to transport people. The deal is the latest example of Waymo's efforts to build out the delivery arm of its autonomous vehicle technology business.

Starting point is 00:10:08 The two companies said the initial plan is to integrate Waymo's self-driving stack, the suite of software and hardware that allows the vehicle to operate without a human behind the wheel, into FCA's RAM-Promaster vans. These self-driving cargo vans will be used by Waymo Via, the company's trucking and local delivery service. However, it appears that the terms of the deal could extend far beyond Waymo via. It's possible that FCA could supply other transport companies with the self-driving vans, equipped with Waymo Tech, through a licensing deal. The company said the partnership actually covers FCA's entire portfolio of vehicles.

Starting point is 00:10:44 The agreement between FCA and Waymo also extends to future affiliates, according to those familiar with the partnership. That point matters because FCA and French automaker group PSA are in the process of merging into a newly formed corporation called Stalantis. If the 50-50 merger closes as expected in the first quarter of next year, the agreement would theoretically include all the brands that fall under Stalantis. As broad as the Waymo FCA agreement might be, the automaker has sought out other partners in the autonomous vehicle industry in varying capacities.

Starting point is 00:11:16 FCA's approach to rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle technology is to focus on vehicle side needs while establishing smart and strategic collaborations that promote a culture of innovation, safety, and know-how, the automaker previously told TechCrunch, end quote. In other words, as we've been saying, suddenly the entire industry is like, forget about autonomous taxis, self-driving delivery is the future. Well, the immediate future, I guess, or at least that's what they hope. Our friend Min Chi Quo has a new research report out saying that Apple is lining up Periscope telephoto lens suppliers for the 2022 iPhone. Periscope lenses, in case you weren't aware, allow manufacturers to provide

Starting point is 00:12:05 higher optical zoom capabilities, quoting Mac rumors. Periscope lenses have already seen their way into some smartphones and provides manufacturers a way to provide much higher optical zoom in a smartphone size package. Huawei, for example, ships the P30 Pro, which offers a 5x true optical zoom zoom using a similar mechanism. A 10x optical zoom phone is reportedly also in the works from Huawei. Apple has filed patents related to periscope lenses as recently as 2016. According to the description included in the patent, light would be channeled into the camera through a primary lens, bounced off the included mirror in the smartphone, and then would be sent to a secondary lens that moves up and down for the purpose of zooming in. Apple describes it as a folded

Starting point is 00:12:50 telephoto camera lens system, end quote. Interesting raise in the e-commerce arena, because I'm just fascinated by what this company does. Miss Fitt's Market is an e-commerce site that sells ugly or misshapen produce, produce that looks bad, and maybe you would pick over it at the grocery store, but probably it nonetheless is fine. Taste great. Well, misfit market has raised an $85 million series B led by Valor Equity Partners, bringing its total raised to $101.5 million, quoting TechCrunch. Misfits market started out as a subscription box that allowed folks to buy ugly or misshapen product on the cheap each week. This product would have been thrown out at the farm before ever heading to a distributor or grocery store because it usually goes to waste sitting on a grocery store shelf.

Starting point is 00:13:47 There's nothing actually wrong with this produce except for the fact that shoppers wouldn't normally choose it from a pile of fruit or vegetables that look more pleasing. Since raising its Series A, Misfits Market has been working to expand its selection, which now includes chocolate, snacks, chips, coffee, herbs, grains, lentils, sauces, and spices. Users can add these products to their usual weekly produce box on an a la carte basis, and they're priced 20 to 25% below retail. These products are available to add to box once a week. At its core, Misfits Market looks at any structural inefficiencies in the food supply chain

Starting point is 00:14:24 and capitalizes on them, getting the product at a discount and passing those savings on to the end customer. These inefficiencies may include issues with sell-by-date. Some products must be on store shelves nine months before their sell-by-date, or an ineffectual mistake like the olive oil company that works with, misfits market and has a bad habit of attaching its labels on the cans upside down. Where timing is concerned, misfits market doesn't have to play by the same rules as a distributor or grocery store as it sends products directly to consumers benefiting from a much faster logistical operation, end quote. Let's end today with something that on the surface might not

Starting point is 00:15:07 seem like a huge tech story, but it is when you think about what this means for the company involved, which is Amazon. A new analysis. from advertising research firm Cantar says that Amazon is now the number one advertiser in the U.S. Amazon spent $6.9 billion on advertising in the U.S. in 2019, which is more than the $6.1 billion spent by number two Comcast on advertising, the $5.5 billion spent by AT&T, even more than the $4.3 billion spent by Procter and Gamble. Why this matters is, because it shows an interesting evolution not only in Amazon's strategy, but also in Amazon's thinking about itself, quoting from Axios. It wasn't that long ago in 2009 that Jeff Bezos

Starting point is 00:15:56 triumphantly declared that, quote, advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service. Now that the e-commerce giant is in the business of selling hundreds of its own products from voice assistance to TV hardware, it has a different perspective. Bezos recently conceded last year that he, quote, changed his mind in regards to advertising, end quote, As James Whitaker tweeted, quote, ads fill the coffers of the bad, decent, and excellent alike. Ads divorce revenue from product or content quality. You no longer have to improve your product to make more money.

Starting point is 00:16:29 Just place more ads, end quote. That's all for today. Nothing much to share. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 07/22 - Samsung Announces the Galaxy Z Flip 5G

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