Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 10/02 - Microsoft Is Back In The Smartphone Business

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

All the news from Microsoft’s Surface event… they’re making smartphones again! Anti-trust scrutiny gets results again as Apple says Siri will soon play nice with others, the Galaxy Fold reviews are in and might the other members of the Libra consortium be having second thoughts? Sponsors: PixelUnion.net AirMedcareNetwork.com/tech code: tech Links: Microsoft Launches Surface Pro X With New Ultra-Thin Design, Slim Pen, Type Cover (Thurott.com) MICROSOFT SURFACE NEO FIRST LOOK: THE FUTURE OF WINDOWS 10X IS DUAL-SCREEN (The Verge) Microsoft surprises with new foldable Surface Duo phone running Android (The Verge) Galaxy Fold: This flip phone’s a flop, but the folding trend won’t stop (The Washington Post) Apple to Loosen Reins on Outside Messaging, Phone Apps Via Siri (Bloomberg) UPS Now Runs the First Official Drone Airline (Wired) Visa, Mastercard, Others Reconsider Involvement in Facebook's Libra Network (WSJ) 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, October 2nd, 2019. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, all of the news from Microsoft's Surface event. They're making smartphones again, people. Anti-trust scrutiny gets results again, as Apple says Siri will soon play nice with others.

The Galaxy Fold reviews are in and are the other members of the Libra Consortium getting cold feet? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Microsoft held its big surface event today on the far west side of Manhattan. Let me run down the expected announcements before getting into the bigger headlines and surprises. First up, meet the Surface Laptop 3, which comes in a 13.5 inch and 15 inch variety, and beginning at $9,99 and $1,199 respectively. These machines have quad-core 10th-gen Intel Core chips, special AMD Risen, Microsoft Surface Edition graphics processors, and Microsoft took care to claim that these machines are three times more powerful than, say, a MacBook Air. They also mentioned that the keyboards have full 1.3 millimeter travel, as well as one assumes actual functioning keys, plus a 20% bigger trackpad.

and fast charging. Microsoft claimed you could get 80% charge in under an hour. You can pre-order the Surface Laptop 3 today, and it's shipping October 22nd. I'm starting with these devices because these were the most impressive to me in the hands-on after the event. They're really slick, really thin and light, especially the 15-inch version, which seriously, I've always shied away from a 15-inch laptop because of the size and weight issues, but that almost completely goes away here. And if you've never held a Surface laptop, I guess it's a matter of taste, really, but the build just feels better to me. Not that MacBooks feel bad at all. It's just that it feels different. It feels smoother, but again, personal preferences. Next up, we have the Surface Pro 8 with Intel

and Arm versions. USBC and up to 16 gigabytes of RAM as well as up to 1 terabyte of storage. The Surface Pro 8 begins at $749. And it's the same deal you pre-order today, available October 22nd. Also, it's the same 12.3-inch display, same keyboard, though the Surface Pen has been updated. Microsoft showed off some pretty impressive tricks doing things like in-line editing with the pen in Word docs and Excel spreadsheets. But yeah, this machine feels and looks basically the same as the Surface Pro you know and love. However, you can also say hello to the Surface Pro X, which is an ultra-thin version of the Surface Pro with LTE, USBC, a custom SQ1 chip, and starting at $999.

When I say thin, again, I'm speaking from the experience of the hands-on, I mean impossibly thin. This thing feels amazing in the hand. It's 5.3 millimeters thick, weighing in at only 774 grams. And about that chip, quoting Therot.com, Surface ProX is powered by a new Microsoft SQ1 processor with LTE Advanced Connectivity. The SQ1 chip set is a custom chip set built by Microsoft for the Surface ProX built on a Snapdragon arm processor. The SQ1 apparently offers more power, exactly 7 watts of power, than usual arm chips. And Microsoft worked with Qualcomm to enhance GPU performance, with the ProX offering two taraflops of graphics performance.

The Surface ProX also is the first Windows PC ever to ship with an integrated AI engine. All in all, the ProX features nine terraflops of computing power, end quote. Now, about that keyboard, it's basically the same sort of keyboard. as on the regular Surface Pro, but it's got a slot for this new Surface Slim Pen, which doubles as its charging dock. No more Quadruple A batteries. You can close up the keyboard with the pen inside, but this is still that kind of sort of keyboard,

not like the keyboard on the Surface Book 2, which notably was not mentioned today. So again, if you like the Surface Pro, then this is that, but thinner, sexier. And now for the headline-making stuff. This was heavily rumored ahead of time, but Microsoft demoed the Surface Neo. Basically, the dream of the courier come to life a decade later. This is a dual-screen device that folds out and has an attachable keyboard. So in essence, you could use it like a book-like dual-screen device or a unfolded tall tablet

or a tiny netbook-like computer. Remember netbooks? But with the remaining screen area, also available as a touchscreen area, that Microsoft is calling the Wonder Bar. Microsoft is, in fact, creating a whole new version of Windows 10 for this, Windows 10X, but you will not be able to get your hands on the Surface Neo yet, because it will only be available late in 2020. The only reason that Microsoft showed it off on stage today,

no hands-on for this one, sadly, is because they want to make developers aware of it so that they can, you know, begin developing for it. Quoting the Verge, like most surface devices, There's an intricate hinge that allows the Surface Neo to switch into a variety of modes and the typical high build quality you'd expect for Microsoft's hardware. There's also a clever Bluetooth keyboard that flips, slides, and locks into place with magnets, which can be stowed and secured to the rear of the device. There's even a new Surface Slim pen that attaches magnetically,

and it's the same stylus Microsoft is using on the new Surface ProX. You could use it as a laptop, a book, or a tablet, in ways we haven't exactly seen before. Microsoft isn't revealing much more about the Surface Neo hardware just yet, but Intel Lakefield processors will power the device. Del, HP, Lenovo, and Asis are all working on dual-screen or even foldable devices that will also run Windows 10X, so this isn't just a Microsoft and surface effort, end quote. As I say, that had been heavily leaked and rumored about something that Microsoft actually acknowledged on stage. If this was a symphony, It'd be missing one instant.

That's what will be happening. And I read your tweets and I saw the leaks and I read the websites. I got that. Good job. You guys did your job. Everyone in here did their job. You got it all right except for one thing. Take a look.

Yes. No one really saw this coming, but Microsoft is getting back into the smartphone hardware space. The Surface Duo is a folding Android phone with two interfacing 5.6 inch displays. also coming late next year. Quoting the Verge again. The design of the device resembles Microsoft's just announced dual-screen Surface Neo laptop, but on a smaller, pocketable scale.

The Surface Duo features two 5.6-inch displays that can rotate 360 degrees, allowing it to be fully unfolded as a miniature 8.3-inch tablet. Each display can also run two different apps at the same time, or the duo can be turned into landscape mode, allowing the second display to be used as a keyboard, or a game controller. The version of Android on offer here looks heavily skinned, too,

to resemble the Windows 10X operating system that the larger Surface Neo runs. According to Wired, the Surface Duo is powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor, but elements of the design haven't been finalized yet, like whether it'll feature a rear camera at all, end quote. Panos Penae was loath to actually call it a phone or even a fablet on stage, but that's what this is. So Microsoft making phones again is pretty interesting. And one more thing. They are also making surface earbuds. Coming later this year for $249.

You know the drill. The surface earbuds come with a charging case. Microsoft claims 24-hour battery life with the case. But a new design, and this will be what will be interesting to see how people react to. They are big, huge disks. They look like the bolts in the side of the neck of the Frankenstein monster from films from the 30s. But they're sticking out of your ears. Now, there is an advantage to that design.

With that amount of surface area, you can tap and swipe and do all sorts of gestures to do things like change volume, play and pause, skip songs on Spotify, all without having to take out your phone. I did not personally get to put them in my ears, but I watched others do so. And let's just say, if you think it took a while for people to stop making fun of you for having air buds sticking out of your ears. Yeah, this is going to take some time to get used to as well. Speaking of foldable devices, the Samsung fold reviews are in at long last, and well, I guess the fact that at least as of now no one's device has broken yet is kind of progress. Glenn Fleischman joked on this podcast before about knowing when to fold them, but the reviews

made him feel the need to double down on the puns, I guess. Jeffrey Fowler at the Washington Post took a pass at the fold and noted that it is a conversation starter. Wherever he went while testing it, people asked questions when he opened it up. He says he likes the screen area and the foldability, but dislikes its $2,000 price tag and its fragility. He also notes that Samsung offers owners a $150 screen replacement in the first year, but thanks given the, again, devices fragility, he argues that that should be free. The second screen replacement, by the way, costs $600. The Samsung Fold comes with a warning label that says,

don't press on the screen with a pen, don't expose it to liquids, avoid dust, don't add screen protectors or stickers, and don't place it near credit cards or medical devices because it contains magnets. Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal found the fold, quote, the most exciting smartphone in years, but also noted that she, quote, kept it in its ugly case much of the time to make sure it was safe. She does not recommend buying one either and describes it again, Frankenstein style, as having escaped Samsung's labs. But she thinks it's a preview of the future, just a future that should be much more resilient in the future.

Facing criticism from a report on the growth of its bundled apps on the iPhone and iPad, Apple announced today that it would make it easier for Siri to tap into apps created by other companies to send messages or make voice calls. When you tell Siri on an iPhone or iPad to send a message or make a call currently, it defaults to Apple's built-in apps and there's no way to change that behavior. So now Apple's decision to change tack comes alongside a Bloomberg story detailing the growth in numbers of Apple created bundled apps on its mobile devices, many of which have special operating system access and preferential treatment not granted to third-party developers. In an update later in 2019, Siri will learn a user's preference for the messaging app they use most commonly and pass along a message request to that software instead of always handling it through Apple's own

messages app. Developers will need to update their software to make use of the Siri handoff. At an unspecified future point, Apple will expand Siri to pass voice calls to a user's frequently used third-party apps as well. However, as iOS and Mac developer Benjamin Mayo tweeted, quote, Siri using the app you use the most doesn't really address anti-competitive advantage. IMessage is still pre-installed by default and wields many system level privileges that app store apps can't, end quote. Apple seemed quite stung by a New York Times analysis in early September that we talked about that found. The firm ranked its own app's highest in search results on the iPhone and iPad, including apps that were clearly inappropriate for the search request. The company made two senior executives available to that Times article, gave the Times access to its search development team, and then tweaked its algorithm thereafter.

Today's Bloomberg story focuses on antitrust concerns raised by having an increasing number of its own apps that receive special treatment within the operating system, making them more functional and desirable than third-party software. A House of Representatives' antitrust group is digging into Apple's behavior around promoting its own apps in an ecosystem it controls. and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh introduced a parallel concern earlier this year in his opinion sending a case against Apple that alleged it monopolized the aftermarket for apps on its platform back to an appeals court. Kavanaugh suggested Apple may also be a monopolist. This little crack in series steering customers to Apple apps might portend a greater opening in the future because of this anti-competitive pressure and scrutiny. But right now, it's hard to see just this move as more than a soft. to critics. Apple's hardware sales growth has weakened and the company has to lean in full strength to increase service revenue and that means leaning heavily on ecosystem lock-in. That's driven by

bundled apps old and new like Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade. If you're visiting a hospital complex and hear a buzzing sound, you might want to look up because you could spot UPS's new signature brown flying overhead. The FAA has approved the company's drone division as an airline, granting it Part 135 standard certification. UPS is the first company to get this broad certification as a private airline, but it's only the first step in many towards turning delivery by drone into a commercially available service. For now, UPS still needs FAA approval every time it wants to fly a drone beyond the line of sight of an operator. It's been testing its delivery, system at the campus of the Wikimed Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, handling 1,000

paid deliveries there so far, again within an operator's view. But after this certification, UPS obtained the FAA sign-off to run the first paid non-visual mission last week. With this new certification, UPS is approved to fly an unlimited number of drones, rely on as many operators as at once, run drones at night, and carry a combined weight above 55 pounds. Hospitals actually spend an inordinate amount of staff time moving stuff around, and were early experimenters with primitive robots that could move specimens and supplies. The UPS Flight Forward Division plans to expand to more hospital campuses, and the company has hinted about plans for many industries. The company's CEO told the Wall Street Journal that the next phase might encompass 100 or

more hospital complexes, end quote. Unlike Amazon, which has at least publicly talked about drones delivering packages to consumer doorsteps, UPS envisions its drone business for microscale logistics, bringing expertise to industries in which there's a high value attached to the products carried and an easy arithmetic in reducing staffing hours to move them around. So think of the drones as a segue or golf cart alternative in these contexts. This seems like a more achievable near-term result, though, as a campus can be much more easily mapped and characterized for what UPS hopes are, quote, regular and frequent drone flights beyond the operator's visual line of sight than the world at large.

Finally today, partners in Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency-based payments network Libra are weighing whether to continue with their involvement in Libra. This is according to the Wall Street Journal. Visa and MasterCard and other financial companies are questioning whether Facebook has its act together enough on critical issues of deterring money laundering and use by terrorist networks, according to a report in the journal. While you can find their names and logos on the Libra Association's partners page today, these companies have so far not agreed to Facebook's request to make public statements of support for Libra and have only signed non-binding letters of intent at this point.

They haven't even forked over that $10 million initial payment for participation. Cryptocurrencies have been criticized from nearly their inception for the potential to hide criminal transactions. The journal reported that U.S. regulators have asked for the complete anti-money laundering strategies from Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Stripe, and how they will make them work with Libra. An anonymous source at one of the Libra Association members told the journal, they haven't been able to get detailed answers about plans to prevent illegal activities from taking place. Facebook's Libra chief publicly and specifically denied that allegation, saying it had been made available to its partners. The Facebook executive who co-created Libra, David Marcus, said in a frank response to the journal article on Twitter, quote, While I have no knowledge of specific organizations' plans to not step up, commitment to the mission is more important than anything else, end quote. A meeting is slated in Switzerland on October 14th to examine the current proposal for the association's charter and to appoint.

point a board of directors. However, interesting given this article, the journal also reports that policy executives from the association's backers were, quote, summoned to a meeting in D.C. to be held tomorrow. My thanks to the great Glenn Fleischman for helping to write the show today. I'm sure you can guess which bits Glenn wrote and which ones I did, as he is by far the better writer. My cousin DM'd me this morning when I tweeted out a picture from the Microsoft event that since it was early enough in the day that the event was happening, I had no excuse for the ride home being late today.

Well, the only reason this show is not late today is because of Glenn's able assistance. So thank you, Glenn, and talk to you all tomorrow.