Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/11 - California Borks The Gig Economy (?)

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 right home for Wednesday. September 11th, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Today, will a California law change the entire landscape of the gig economy? Can Dutchie build a Shopify-like e-commerce platform for cannabis? Will Switzerland be less welcoming to Libra than Facebook hoped? And a rundown of the fallout from yesterday's iPhone event. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. This has been coming for a while, and I don't think that we've had a chance to talk about it. But California has officially passed a landmark bill that requires gig economy workers to be treated as employees. The bill goes to the governor's desk for signature next.

Starting point is 00:01:20 And if that signing happens, the bill would go into effect January 1st of next year. And yeah, this affects everyone from Uber and Lyft to DoorDash and Postmates, quoting the New York Times. The ride-hailing firms, along with app-based services that offer food delivery, home repairs, and dog-walking services have built their businesses on inexpensive, independent labor. Uber and Lyft, which have hundreds of thousands of drivers in California have said contract work provides people with flexibility. They have warned that recognizing drivers as employees could destroy their business. Quote, it will have major reverberations around the country, said David Weil, a top labor department official during the Obama administration and the author of a book on the so-called

Starting point is 00:02:03 fissuring of the workplace. He argued that the bill could set a new bar for worker protections and force business owners to rethink their reliance on contractors, end quote. The gig economy companies have already made moves not to take this lying down. Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash have pledged $90 million to get a ballot initiative before California voters that would exempt their companies from the new law. So, Californians, get ready for some campaign. ads in the next few months ahead of the next election from your friends at Lyft and Uber. Speaking of Uber, in a clever bit of burying bad news among the overall din of an iPhone launch day, Uber revealed yesterday that it has laid off 170 people from its product team and 265 people

Starting point is 00:02:59 from its engineering team. Those numbers combined represent 8% of Uber's overall workforce, the actual salaried workforce, of course, not their army of independently contracted drivers, are the previous segment. Interestingly, no layoffs in Uber Eats, as Uber seems to feel that Uber Eats is one of their top performing departments at the moment. Quote, our hope with these changes is to reset and improve how we work day to day, ruthlessly prioritizing and always holding ourselves accountable to a high bar of performance and agility. an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. While certainly painful in the moment, especially for those directly affected,

Starting point is 00:03:40 we believe that this will result in a much stronger technical organization, which going forward will continue to hire some of the best talent around the world, end quote. Of those laid off, more than 85% are based in the U.S., 10% are in Asia Pacific, and 5% are in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to the source. The layoffs came after Uber CEO Darakas Oshahi asked every member of his executive team if they were to start from scratch, would their respective organizations look the way they do today? Quote, after careful consideration, our engineering and product leaders concluded the answer to this question in many respects was no. The spokesperson said, end quote.

Starting point is 00:04:22 AWS has announced the general availability of the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database, which is a centralized blockchain service that you can use to maintain a permanent record of transactions. Amazon announced AWS QLDB at the Reinvent Conference last year alongside Amazon-managed blockchain that lets you create a fully managed scalable blockchain network based on Ethereum. But, quoting Silicon Angle, Amazon QLDB is more of a do-it-yourself. Centralized service companies can use to maintain a permanent record of transactions. For example, it can be used to keep track of credit and debit transactions associated with bank accounts or to track the manufacturing history of a product. The service is simple to get up and running,

Starting point is 00:05:06 thanks to its familiar database capabilities and its document-oriented data model, means it can be used to store both structured and unstructured data, Amazon said. Constellation Research analyst Holger Muller said it was important for Amazon and other cloud providers to provide a way for customers to build blockchains as they are a key enabler of next-generation applications,

Starting point is 00:05:28 which are exclusively built in the cloud. quote, quote, today it is Amazon Web Services turn to make its blockchain service generally available, and this is always an important milestone for any product, Mueller said. Conservative CXOs, who don't want to be beta testers, now have the reassurance of a fully and generally available product. It's still a version one, though, so caution is always a good consideration when adopting new technologies, end quote. At the fireside conference last weekend, there were a ton of cannabis startups. This was partially due to the fact that the conference had a cannabis business track, and partially due to the simple fact that cannabis is legal in Canada, of course.

Starting point is 00:06:13 Anyway, it's put these sorts of startups on my radar, and so my radar ping today when I heard about Oregon-based Dutchie, which has raised a $15 million series A to bring their lifetime raised to $18 million to create essentially Shopify for cannabis dispensaries. Dutchie's software quote is used by a growing number of cannabis dispensaries that pay the startup a monthly subscription fee to create and maintain their websites as well as to accept orders and track what needs to be ready for pickup. The decision is looking like a smart one right now. Dutchie says it is now being used by 450 dispensaries across 18 states and that it's seeing $140 million in gross merchandise volume. The company also just locked down $15 million in Series A funding led by Grand Ventures, a new can.

Starting point is 00:07:01 cannabis-focused venture fund with at least $117 million to invest, end quote. In case you're unaware, but mostly U.S. focused as I am, it is notable that in the U.S. there are already 30 states where cannabis is either medically legal or full-on recreational use is legal. Dutchie claims to work with 15% of the legal dispensaries currently operating. So, sort of tongue-in-cheek check-in on legal. Libra's Health, a Libra Health Watch update. To what degree this is tongue-in-cheek, I haven't quite decided as everything with Libra is sort of up in the air to me. I mean, again, there is a non-zero chance that Libra will ever see the light of day. But then again, who knows?

Starting point is 00:07:50 Another setback, though, for Facebook's cryptocurrency play, as Switzerland has warned Facebook that Libra will face extra scrutiny from its banking and finance regulators with stiff rules that typically apply to banks in addition to tough anti-money laundering laws, which is sort of an issue because the Libra Foundation is based in Geneva, as I assume Facebook was hoping for a light regulatory touch there. Maybe not so much. The news came from Switzerland's financial market supervisor, Finma, quoting Reuters. Finma said the project would be more than just a global payment system and would therefore be subject to extra requirements from liquidity and capital allocations for risk to the management of reserves that will back

Starting point is 00:08:34 the digital tokens. Quote, for bank-like risks, for example, bank-like regulatory requirements would apply, Finma said in an initial assessment of the project based on the information it has so far. A spokesman for Libra said, getting clarity on how its new digital currency would be regulated in Switzerland, was key for the project's development and FINMA's guidance, quote, now define what the Libra ecosystem is and what it is not, end quote. Yes, it will be fascinating to see what Libra actually is and is not in its final incarnation, and then compare that to what was promised at launch. In the aftermath of any iPhone event, it's usually useful to sift through the

Starting point is 00:09:22 confetti and see some of the details that headlines might have missed. First of all, Some folks got hands-on with the new iPhones, and the consensus seems to be that the 11s look and feel slightly better than the 10S generation, largely because of that matte finish. But the camera bump is big, is noticeable, and Apple seems to be unapologetic about that, quoting Dieter Bone in The Verge. So let's talk about the camera bump. It's big, but Apple has designed the lenses on it in such a way that it isn't trying to hire. the giant square on the back. I don't love it, but everybody uses a case anyway, so that will help, end quote. Also, in case you missed it in the keynote, there is no 3D touch. Not anymore. A haptic touch seems to be what we'll get from here on out. But to be honest, will you really miss

Starting point is 00:10:17 3D touch? Also worth noting that all iPhone 11 models have a U1 ultra-wideband chip for spatial awareness. There had been a lot of rumors that Apple would be announcing some sort of tile-like tracking tags that did not pan out. Still, the chips are there, quoting in Gadget. The iPhone 11 pro page hints that this is, quote, just the beginning of uses for UWB. Although that's not a guarantee tracking tags are in the pipeline, it's hard to imagine Apple limiting the technology to small but handy software tricks. The Mac Rumors report that revealed the chip hinted that it could play a key role in Apple's augmented reality plans by providing very accurate positioning, end quote. Apple Insider posits that Apple just telegraphed to us with this new lineup that they're not going

Starting point is 00:11:10 to make an iPhone SE2 anytime soon. Not that we expected one yesterday, but William Gallagher says, do not expect a smaller iPhone form factor in the coming years either because Apple thinks the iPhone 8 is the perfect entry-level iPhone that their lineup needs. Quote, the height of an iPhone 8 is 5.45 inches compared to the 4.87 inches of an iPhone SE, and the width is 2.65 inches instead of 2.31 inches. But the depth is actually slightly less at 0.29 inches instead of 0.3. These differences are enough that when you see images of the two phones, you think the iPhone 8 is far bigger. They're not enough that you think that it seems quite so great when you hold both, which is good since the same rumors that say Apple is

Starting point is 00:11:57 making a new iPhone SE2 are also saying that it will really be the size of an iPhone 8. We've already got one of those. It's already the cheapest current iPhone Apple sells. Apple clearly thinks that there's little or no market for a 4-inch model, end quote. Some people got hands on with the Apple Watch series 5. They report that it's a dead ringer for the series 4. Aside from the new build materials, design-wise, you cannot tell the difference. And lots of praise for that always on display. Quote, the ability to always see the time without having to do a convoluted arm gesture is a big deal, and it finally makes the Apple Watch a competent timepiece. It works just as you'd expect. You can see the full

Starting point is 00:12:41 watch face at a dimmer brightness all the time, and at full brightness when you lift your wrist up. The watch faces are even able to show all of their complications and data in the Always on mode, end quote. Mark German says that the biggest news from the keynote was not a new phone or a new feature or even the new services, but an aggressive new pricing strategy that is a departure for Apple. The iPhone 11 starts at $699 down from the iPhone 10R's $749 price last year. The 10R stays in the lineup for $599, a $150 decrease for a phone that's only a year old. That's one of the biggest year-over-year reductions in iPhone.

Starting point is 00:13:22 history. Quote, the biggest news from the Apple launch was the price cut for iPhone 11. Chris Casso, an analyst at Raymond James and associates wrote in a note to investors. We view this as an admission that Apple stretched too far with the price points at last year's launch, end quote. And finally, in Straterey, Ben Thompson took note of the price drops as well, suggesting that Apple learned a lesson over the last two years. If the 10R really was the best-selling iPhone over the last year, then Apple now knows that if you offer a good enough, good enough phone, that really is good enough, people will not feel the need to pay up for the flagship. But he also noted this important point about Apple really walking the walk about becoming a services company.

Starting point is 00:14:09 I and a lot of other people notice that there was no talk of a bundle yet. No talk of one price for Apple Plus and Apple Arcade and Apple Care, etc. No talk yet of an Apple Prime, basically. Well, Ben says this, quote, not only can you get a new iPhone for less if you trade in your old iPhone, you can also pay for it on a monthly basis. This applies to phones without a trade-in as well. So in the case of this slide, you can get an iPhone 11 and Apple TV Plus for $17 a month.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Apple also adjusted their AppleCare Plus terms yesterday. Now you can subscribe monthly. and AppleCare Plus will carry on until you cancel, just as other Apple services like Apple Music or Apple Arcade do. The company already has the iPhone upgrade program that bundles a yearly iPhone and AppleCare Plus, but this shift for AppleCare Plus purchased on its own is another step towards assuming that Apple's relationship with its customers

Starting point is 00:15:08 will be a subscription-based one. To that end, how long until there is a variant of the iPhone upgrade program that is simply an all-up Apple subscription? pay one monthly fee and get everything Apple has to offer. Indeed, nothing would show that Apple is a services company more than making the iPhone itself a service, at least as far as the customer relationship goes. You might even say it is innovative, end quote. That is all for today.

Starting point is 00:15:40 As always, I've been your host, Brian McCullough. Follow me on Twitter at Brian MCC, the show subreddit, where you can send me and tip me stories that I often end up using on the show every day, R-slash Ride Home. If you look at the very bottom link in the show notes, you'll find a way to subscribe to an ad-free version of the show that will save you some time every month and allow you to support the show directly.

Starting point is 00:16:01 And if you want to buy a podcast classified ad, for me to read right about here on future shows to tell other members of the Mutant Podcast Army about something you're working on, visit ridehome.com. Forward slash Classifieds. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/11 - California Borks The Gig Economy (?)

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