Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 09/22 – The Microsoft Surface Event

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

All the headlines and releases from today’s Microsoft Surface Event. Robinhood wants to get in the crypto wallet game. Microsoft finds Phishing as a Service on the darker corners of the web. And a rundown of some new Facebook controversies. Sponsors: Blockchain.com UrbanCatalyst.com/techmeme Links: Microsoft announces Surface Pro 8 with bigger 13-inch 120Hz display and Thunderbolt (The Verge) The Surface Go 3 gets new Intel processors (The Verge) Microsoft’s new Surface Duo 2 has all the features that were missing the first time around (The Verge) Surface Laptop Studio is Microsoft’s new powerful flagship laptop (The Verge) Robinhood to launch cryptocurrency wallets as bitcoin becomes a bigger part of business (CNBC) Microsoft uncovers giant Phishing-as-a-Service operation (The Record) No More Apologies: Inside Facebook’s Push to Defend Its Image (NYTimes) The Oversight Board wants Facebook to explain its controversial rules for VIPs (Engadget) Facebook paid billions extra to the FTC to spare Zuckerberg in data suit, shareholders allege (Politico) 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 Tech meme right home for Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021. I'm Brian McKele today. All the headlines and announcements from today's Microsoft Surface event.

Robin Hood wants to get into the crypto wallet game. Microsoft finds Fishing as a Service on the darker corners of the web and a rundown of some new Facebook controversies. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. The Microsoft Surface event was this morning, and there were a whole slew of devices announced. First up, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 8 with a 13-inch, 120-hertz, edge-to-edge display, quad-core Intel CPU, Thunderbolt 4, Surface Slim Pen 2, and a refreshed keyboard, quoting the verge.

Microsoft is announcing the Surface Pro 8 today, the biggest upgrade to its Intel-powered Surface Pro lineup since the Surface Pro 3 in 2014. While we've seen tweaks to the design of the Surface Pro for seven years, the Surface Pro 8 jumps to a 120-hertz display with thinner bezels, Thunderbolt 4 support, and a new keyboard that neatly houses an upgraded Surface Slim Pen 2. Microsoft Surface Pro 8 has taken most of the best parts of the Surface Pro X and paired them with an Intel chip.

It's the Surface Pro we've been waiting years for. The 13-inch pixel-sense flow display, as Microsoft calls it, is larger than the 12.3-inch display found on most other Surface Pro devices, and it has a higher resolution, too. The display also supports Dolby Vision and adaptive color technology. The bigger display helps reduce the bezels on the sides of the Surface Pro 8, making it look closer to the Surface Pro X, but the most important part of the Pro 8's display is the fact that it's now 120 hertz. While it will run at 60 hertz by default, the display will jump up to 120 hertz dynamically for touch or stylus tasks. The separate Surface Pro Signature keyboard also now includes a new Surface Slim Pen 2 that's similar to the keyboard and stylus combo found on the Surface ProX.

The stylus charges in the keyboard base and includes a built-in haptic motor that attempts to replicate the feeling of writing on paper. This new stylus also has reduced latency and better precision thanks to a redesigned tip. Inside is where the Surface Pro 8 gets even more interesting. Microsoft is finally supporting Thunderbolt 4 here and dropping the aging USBA port. The Pro 8 will ship with two USBC Thunderbolt 4 ports and the usual Surface Connect port for charging. That means you can connect the Surface Pro 8 to multiple 4K displays, use high. high-speed external storage or even connect up to an external GPU to turn this tablet into a gaming PC. The Surface Pro 8 will also ship with Intel's 11th-gen-quodcore processors and up to 32

gigabytes of RAM, end quote. Microsoft also announced the Surface Go3 with 10.5-inch display, updated Intel CPUs for up to 60% better performance because of more RAM and 10th-gen-in Intel CPUs, though, as the Verge points out, this is basically just a spec bump, quote, the device looks identical to the Surface Go2. There's one significant difference, new Intel processors. Microsoft says the chip bump will make the Surface Go an even more powerful device for out and about use 60% faster than its predecessor. The device runs Windows 11 and the camera supports Windows Hello facial recognition, end quote. Next, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Duo 2. It's got an 8.3 inch 90 hertz.

display a new triple rear camera system, Snapdragon 8885G, Android 11, and on and on. As Brad Sam tweeted, this is basically everything for the Surface Duo, but better. Or as the Verge put it, the Surface Duo 2 has all the features that we're missing in the first generation, so is the second try the charm, quote. The Surface Duo 2, which is available in the same white color as the first gen, plus a new black option, has two displays connected by a hinge that allows you to open it like a book or prop it up like a tent. Combined, the two displays measure 8.3 inches diagonally,

and both of them feature a faster 90-hertz refresh rate. A slight curve on the screen allows it to be viewed when the Duo 2 is closed, showing you time and missed notifications. Covering the screens is Corning Glass. Inside one half of the device is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, a significant upgrade over the 855 chip that was in the first version. It also supports 5G connectivity, another upgrade from the 4G radio that was in the first duo,

Microsoft says it's the thinnest 5G device on the market. The original Surface Duo was laden with a single camera above the right screen, and frankly, it was terrible and one of the weakest points of the hardware. This time around, Microsoft has installed a proper three-camera system on the outside of the Duo 2 with a standard wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto camera system. All three cameras have 12-mapsal resolution, with the wide and telephoto lens also featuring optical image stabilization.

Of course, the main pitch with the duo line of products is productivity, since it's essentially two standard smartphones connected by a hinge. That's not changing this year, and Microsoft says it has come up with more optimizations for sharing information between the two screens and spreading a single app across them. The company says 150 games, including Asphalt Legends 9, Modern Combat 5, and Dungeon Hunter 5,

are optimized for using one screen as a controller while viewing the game itself on the other screen, end quote. And then, the new Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft's new flagship laptop, the successor to the Surface Book line. It's got a 14.4-inch 120-hertz display, Thunderbolt 4, haptic track pad, Nvidia GPU, but the transformability of this device is the real headline, quoting the verge. The most immediate and obvious change to the Surface Book successor is the display and hinge. The 14.4-inch display supports up to 120 hertz and Dolby Vision. Microsoft is using a new flexible hinge, which it says is durable and allows this laptop to transition between modes much like the larger

Surface Surface Dio supports three modes, laptop, stage, and studio. The laptop mode arranges the display just like a regular laptop with a full keyboard and a new touchpad with haptics. The stage mode is where things get interesting as you can pull the display forward to an angle that's designed for gaming, streaming, or presenting. This will cover the keyboard and the angle is more suited toward watching Netflix or playing games, touching the display or using the new Surface Slim Pen 2 for digital inking, end quote. Actually, I don't know if words can really describe this adequately. You might need to check the video, but imagine a laptop.

You open it up like a laptop, keyboard trackpad, the whole nine. Then you can pull the screen forward so that it's sort of tense or triangles over the keyboard, and that's the stage mode. But then you can slide it all the way down for a regular tablet form factor. Microsoft is calling it a whole new laptop category, quote, again. Microsoft's final mode is Studio, and just as the name implies, it's designed for writing, sketching, and anything else creative. Microsoft is carefully avoiding calling this tablet mode, as the Surface Laptop Studio isn't exactly lightweight at nearly four pounds, and it's .7 inches thick.

I never removed the Surface Book display when using it, so I feel like this new laptop studio design rightly keeps the primary focus on laptop modes, while offering some versatility for those who are fans of inking. To me, it looks like a more elegant version of version of ACER's EZL range of laptops. Unlike the Surface book, Microsoft has moved the majority of components to the base of the Surface laptop studio. That will certainly help with the sturdiness of the laptop, but it does mean any potential heat will be dissipated onto your lap. The base also neatly houses the Surface Slim Pen 2, which is surprisingly sold separately. Intel's Quad, Core 11th Gen Core I-5 or Core I7 processors are available to power the Surface

Laptop Studio. The Core I-5 models will ship with Intel Iris G graphics, while the Core I-7 variants will include NVIDIA's RTX-3050 Ti-GPU with 4 gigabytes of V-RAM. There will be options between 16 gigabytes and 32 gigabytes of RAM and up to 2 terabytes of removable SSD storage. All of these specs do make the Surface Laptop Studio very capable of running the latest PC games. Microsoft has traditionally shied away from promoting the Surface Book as a full gaming laptop. but the company leans into this idea with the Surface Laptop Studio. Just like the Surface Pro 8, Microsoft is moving to Thunderbolt 4 on the Surface Laptop Studio. There will be two USB 4 ports with Thunderbolt 4 and the usual Surface Connect charging port and 3.5 millimeter headphone jack.

The Thunderbolt support means you can connect the Surface Laptop Studio to multiple 4K displays, use high-speed external storage or even use an external GPU enclosure to turn this device into a full gaming PC, end quote. everything will apparently be available on October 5th when Windows 11 launches, but you can pre-order today. Weirdly, in the entire event, Microsoft didn't mention prices a single time for even a single device, but I did see right before coming into the booth here that the Surface Laptop Studio starts at $1,59.99. And I would have to imagine that if the pre-order websites are going live right now as we speak, you'll be able to see all the other pricing by the time you hear. these words. Robin Hood says it will test crypto wallets with select users starting next month,

letting investors trade, send, receive, and hold digital currencies, quoting CNBC. The newly public brokerage is testing crypto wallets. With select clients next month, the company announced in a blog post on Wednesday, the so-called wallet will allow investors to trade, send, and receive digital currencies, as well as move them in and out of the Robin Hood app. The startup debuted cryptocurrency trading three years ago, but it is become increasingly important to the company's top line. Last quarter, more than half of Robin Hood's transaction-based revenue came from cryptocurrency trading up from just 3% a year earlier. The new wallets will let clients consolidate their digital coins into one account. Clients can then trade, send, and receive cryptocurrencies to and

from other wallet addresses. Rivals, Coinbase, and Gemini already offer this feature. Bloomberg News first reported Robin Hood's plans to roll out this feature in a beta version of the trading app. Robin Hood also said, said a new feature that allows the setup of recurring crypto investments is live on the app on Wednesday. Clients can schedule a crypto purchase commission free for as low as $1, end quote. Real quick security story for you, Microsoft says it has uncovered a massive fishing operation offering so-called fishing as a service subscriptions or one-time tools based on over 120 templates ranging in price from $80 to $100, quoting the record.

known as Bulletproof Link, Bullet Profit Link, or Anthrax, the service is currently advertised on underground cybercrime forums. The service is an evolution on fishing kits, which are collections of phishing pages and templates imitating the login forums of known companies. Bulletproof Link takes this to a whole new level by providing built-in hosting and email sending services as well. Customers register on the Bulletproof Link portal by paying a fee of $800, and the Bulletproof Link operators handle everything else for them. These services include setting up a webpage to host the fishing site, installing the fishing template itself, configuring domain URLs for the fishing sites, sending the actual fishing emails

to desired victims, collecting credentials from attacks, and then delivering the stolen logins to paying customers at the end of the week. If criminal groups want to vary their fishing templates, the Bulletproof Link Gang also runs a separate store where threat actors can buy new templates to use in their attacks with prices ranging from $80 to $100 per each new template. but roughly 120 different fishing templates are available on the Bulletproof Link Store, as seen by the record today. In addition, the site also hosts tutorials to help customers use the service. Microsoft described the entire operation as technically advanced with the group often using hacked sites to host its fishing pages, end quote. Finally today, more Facebook controversies, though this first one seems to be controversial in its own right in some quarters.

Some folks seem to think that maybe the details have been gotten wrong with this story, but sources are telling the Wall Street Journal that last month, Mark Zuckerberg agreed to show users' positive stories about Facebook in the Facebook news feed. Facebook says it ran a small test with labeled posts, but, quote, Mark Zuckerberg Facebook's chief executive signed off last month on a new initiative code name project Amplify. The effort which was hatched at an internal meeting in January had a specific purpose. To use Facebook's news feed, the site's most important digital real estate to show people positive stories about the social network. The idea was that pushing pro-Facebook news items, some of them

written by the company, would improve its image in the eyes of its users, three people with knowledge of the effort said. But the move was sensitive because Facebook had not previously positioned the newsfeed as a place where it burnished its own reputation. Several executives at the meeting were shocked by the proposal, one attendee said. Facebook executives concluding that their methods of combating PR controversy had done little to quell criticism or win supporters decided earlier this year to go on the offensive, said six current and former employees who declined to be identified for fear of reprisal. Quote, they're realizing that no one else is going to come to their defense, so they need to do it and say it themselves, said

Katie Harbath, a former Facebook public policy director. Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman, denied that the company had changed its approach. Quote, people deserve to know the steps we're taking to address the different issues facing our company, and we're going to share those steps widely, he said in a statement, end quote. Meanwhile, Facebook's oversight board wants the company to explain its so-called cross-check system, which reportedly lets celebrities, politicians, and others break its rules, quoting in gadget. In light of recent developments, we are looking into the degree to which Facebook has been fully forthcoming in its responses in relation to cross-check, including the practice of whitelisting, the board said in a statement,

We expect to receive a brief from Facebook in the coming days, and we'll be reporting what we hear from this as part of our first release of quarterly transparency reports, which we will publish in October, end quote. The statement comes one week after the Wall Street Journal reported on internal memos that raised significant issues with the cross-check system. Facebook has said the rules are meant to provide an extra layer of scrutiny to potential rule-breaking posts from high-profile accounts. But according to the Wall Street Journal, those extra checks are often very delayed or don't happen at all, effectively allowing famous people to break the platform's rules without consequences. The report also stated that Facebook had, quote, misled the Oversight Board when it said it was

not feasible to share more information about cross-check and that the system only impacted a small number of accounts. It's not clear how much more information Facebook plans to share with the Oversight Board. The company declined to comment on the board's statement, but the Oversight Board says it will publish its first transparency report next month, which will provide an update on cross-check, as well as its assessment of how Facebook is following its recommendations, end quote. So get your popcorn ready for that, I guess. And finally, one more thing, Facebook shareholders are alleging that Facebook conditioned its $5 billion Cambridge Analytica settlement with the FTC on the condition that the FTC drop plans to sue and depose Mark Zuckerberg himself,

quoting Politico. In suits made public Tuesday, two groups of shareholders claim that members of Facebook's board allowed the company to overpay on its fine in order to protect Zuckerberg, the company's founder and largest shareholder. The complaints which cite internal discussions among Facebook's board members were filed in Delaware Court of Chancery last month. Quote, Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and other Facebook directors agreed to authorize a multi-billion dollar settlement with the FTC as an express quid pro quo to protect Zuckerberg from being named in the FTC's complaint, made subject to personal liability or, even required to sit for a deposition, one of the suits alleged. In February 2019, the FTC sent

Facebook's lawyers a draft complaint that named both the company and Zuckerberg personally as a defendant, the shareholders said. The FTC also said in court that Facebook's fine would have been closer to $106 million, not billion, but the company agreed to the $5 billion penalty to avoid having Zuckerberg or chief operating officer Cheryl Sandberg deposed and any liability for the CEO, the suit alleged, end quote. Man, so much news today. It's another one of those days where I could have done a complete second episode. Maybe we'll get to some of those stories that I missed tomorrow. Talk to you then.