Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 12/08 – AWS Outage Is Why You Didn’t Get Your Package

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, December 8th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. That AWS outage yesterday disrupted Amazon's own delivery efforts. When we might see the AirPods Pro 2, more specific details on the Apple AR thingy. Ubisoft is the first major player to bring NFTs to gaming

Starting point is 00:00:53 and a look at the records being set in the African startup investment scene. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Again, we try to only cover service outages when the there's something unique or meaningful about the outage. Elsewise, we'd be telling you about the downtime of some app or other every single day. But there were a ton of apps that were down yesterday, thanks to an AWS outage that started around 10.45 a.m. Eastern time, though Amazon now says the underlying issues that caused the outage have been resolved, quoting the verge. There have been reports of outages for Disney Plus and Netflix streaming, as well as games like PUBG, League of legends, and Valerent. We also noticed some problems accessing Amazon.com and other Amazon

Starting point is 00:01:39 products like the Alexa AI assistant, Kindle EBooks, Amazon Music, and security cameras from Ring or Wise. The down-detector list of services with simultaneous spikes in their outage reports runs off nearly any recognizable name, Tinder, Roku, Coinbase, both Cash App and Venmo, and the list goes on. There were reports from network admins everywhere about errors connecting to Amazon's instances and the AWS management console that control. their access to the servers. After about an hour of problems, Amazon's official status page added an update with messages confirming the outage. While some affected services that rely on AWS have been restored, the internet is still a bit slower and more unsteady than usual.

Starting point is 00:02:18 The most important app impacted by the outage might be the ones that Amazon employees use. CNBC points out that Reddit posts from Amazon Flex Warehouse and Delivery Workers who say the apps that keep track of packages tell them where to go and generally keep your items on time went down two, end quote. Yes, that last bit is what makes this outage notable, I guess. Didn't get a package yesterday that you were expecting to get yesterday. This might be why, quoting motherboard. Hundreds of Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers say the company's delivery infrastructure has ground to a halt and generally been thrown into chaos because the Flex app used for critical delivery operations and the Dolphin app, which is used for

Starting point is 00:02:58 time tracking and other operations, have been down all morning. Motherboard spoke to to two owners of Amazon delivery companies in Minnesota and Florida, who confirmed that most of their drivers could not log in to the Flex app this morning because of the outage. AWS servers are down and only about 50% of my people can deliver. Most cannot log in an Amazon delivery company owner in Clearwater, Florida, told Motherboard noting that the outage would cause serious delays in Amazon package delivery. Hundreds of Amazon workers have posted about the issue on Facebook and Reddit, saying they and their co-workers aren't doing any work during the outage, which comes

Starting point is 00:03:31 during the busiest delivery season of the year, end quote. Ming Chi Quo Apple Rumor Wednesday, and in two separate doses, so first up, Quo says that AirPods Pro 2, the first update to the AirPods Pro line since 2019, will launch in Q4 of next year, 2022, with a new design, similar to the Beats Fit Pro, an improved chip inside, and more, quoting Mac Rumors. Reports have suggested a launch next year, but excluding, one rumor suggesting a third quarter launch, a specific time frame has yet to be revealed. The new AirPods Pro is rumored to feature an entirely new design that dispenses with the short

Starting point is 00:04:15 stem that comes out of the bottom for a design similar to the Beats Fit Pro. The AirPods Pro 2 is also rumored to feature fitness tracking capabilities using built-in sensors and a new chip that improves connectivity with devices. Apple recently updated its AirPods line with the third-generation model that features no advanced features such as active noise cancellation or silicon ear chips leaving the AirPods Pro next in line for an update, end quote. And then on the AR headset tip, more specifics and details, Quo says Apple's first AR headset will weigh in at 300 to 400 grams. It will enter mass production in late Q4, 2022, and Apple is also planning a lighter second-generation headset for

Starting point is 00:05:07 launch in 2024. Mac rumors once again. Highlining Apple's long-term goals in AR and the Metaverse, Quo said today that the development of the second generation of the headset is already underway and destined for launch in 2024. It will feature a lighter design compared to the first headset, as well as a new battery system, according to the analyst. Quoting directly from Quo now, Apple has begun planning for the second generation ARMR headset, and the shipment schedule will likely be in second half, 2024. Improvements for the second generation include the lighter weight, form factor design, battery system, and processor compared to the first model, which will go into mass production in late Q4, 2022, end quote. In his note today, Quo also shared some new details about

Starting point is 00:05:52 the first generation of Apple's AR headset, including that it will weigh around 300 to 400 grams, and that it will be able to, quote, seamlessly switch between AR and VR to provide an innovative headset experience, end quote. Apple's first AR headset, is expected to be a somewhat niche product aimed largely towards developers with a focus on communication, media consumption, and gaming. Apple's AR headset product line could ultimately replace the iPhone in 10 years, according to Quo, end quote. The war between the gamers and the NFTs that you all clued me into looks like it might have its first real skirmish soon. Ubisoft is apparently going to add NFT items into its

Starting point is 00:06:37 games, starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the Tezos blockchain, becoming the first major gaming company to incorporate NFTs, quoting to Crypt. Today, the publisher behind Assassin's Creed and Just Dance revealed Ubisoft Quartz, a platform that lets players earn and purchase in-game items that are tokenized as NFTs on the Tezos blockchain. Quartz will launch first in the PC version of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the latest online game in the long-running tactical shooter series. series. Courts will launch in beta on December 9 in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, and Australia. Ghost Recon breakpoint players who have reached XP level 5 in the game can access the NFT drops. Ubisoft's release says that players must be at least

Starting point is 00:07:24 18 years old to create a Tezos wallet for use with the game. Ubisoft is referring to its NFT drops as digits and plans to release free NFTs for early adopters on December 9th, 12th, and 15th, with further drops planned for 2022. In infographic shows items such as weapon skins and unique armor and apparel, along with a message that teases future initiatives, quote, this is just the beginning. Ubisoft Quartz is the first building block in our ambitious vision for developing a true metaverse, said Nicholas Perard, VP of Ubisoft's Strategic Innovation Lab in a release. And it can't come to life without overcoming blockchain's early form limitations for gaming,

Starting point is 00:08:02 including scalability and energy consumption, he said, end quote. Quick story where the news is that the news didn't end up happening. Roku and Google had been in a fight for the last several weeks about carriage fees for the YouTube app on the Roku platform. The fear was that an agreement wouldn't be reached by tomorrow, at which point Google was threatening to take the YouTube app down from Roku. Quick reminder that we blew up the cable bundle only to replace it with the exact same structure as before, but more complicated. Anyway, good news. Roku says it has agreed a multi-year extension with Google for distribution of YouTube and YouTube TV apps on Roku devices, quoting Axios. At the heart of these conflicts were allegations from Roku that Google was making anti-competitive demands as a part of its

Starting point is 00:08:57 distribution agreements, including preferential treatment of its YouTube TV and YouTube apps within the Roku system. Roku did not back down from these allegations for months, and Google publicly denied them. In October, CNBC reported it had seen an email showing that YouTube executives had made such demands in 2019. Axios had also seen that email and can confirm the contents. Democratic members of Congress weighed in with support for Roku following the latest public clash in October. The big picture is that the long-term nature of the deal allows Roku to avoid having another messy spat with Google for a while, giving consumers more certainty at a time when these types of fights between streamers, programmers, and app developers are becoming more

Starting point is 00:09:36 frequent, end quote. Meta has launched a website that lets fans buy digital tokens called Stars, the better to tip creators using Facebook pay with, but also thereby avoiding App Store payment commissions, quoting TechCrunch. This will allow fans to, quote, get more star for their money at lower rates, notes a Facebook announcement. That appears to be true for the time being at least, as Facebook is offering bonus stars with every purchase. That means, for example, that when you spend $9.99 cents on 530 stars, you'll now get another 420 stars as a bonus when purchased through the website. Via the Facebook mobile app and in-app purchases, however, you would only get the 530 stars. Note, I am referencing the website bonus amounts that appeared when the site is loaded today.

Starting point is 00:10:25 The Facebook blog post features a screenshot that shows different bonus amounts. We understand the rates are even lower during the month of December for the Stars Fest event. Regardless, these bonuses mean you get more stars for your money via the web. There are bonus stars available at a variety of increments with the number of extra stars increasing alongside your purchase amount. But if the bonuses are removed, there's no advantage to using a website over in-app purchases, as the rates appear to otherwise be the same as you'd otherwise pay. Once purchased through the Stars Store website, the Stars are deposited into people's virtual wallets, so they can be distributed to eligible creators during their Facebook Live or on-demand videos.

Starting point is 00:11:01 Creators can reward their fans who use Stars however they want. They may give them a shout-out on the video or some other perk. in line with their style and content, end quote. Since we had that interesting data on the European startup ecosystem yesterday, I thought it was also worth noting that records are being broken in Africa, where startups there will have raised $5 billion over the course of 2021, more money raised than the past three years combined. Africa has also seen four unicorns birthed there this year, including Andella, Flutterwave, and OPEC, quoting Bloomberg. A few more deals before the end of the year will increase inflows from about $4.8 billion currently,

Starting point is 00:11:48 said Dario Giuliani, a director at Brighter Bridges Intelligence, a London-based company that tracks investments into African startups. The jump partly reflects greater interest in Africa from investors in the U.S. and China, as well as institutional bankers, according to Nina Tarantus, global telecoms and media head at Standard Bank PLC, who spoke at the Africa Tech Summit in London, in this week. We are seeing the coming of age of the ecosystem. It really is a function of time, said Kolaina, an investor with Lagos-Nigeria-based Ventures Platform speaking at the conference. The increased inflows, partly due to investor interests in financial technology businesses in Africa, helped deliver at least four so-called unicorns, companies worth more than $1 billion in Africa this year,

Starting point is 00:12:30 end quote. Finally, today, some post-game analysis on the whole Jack Dorsey stepping down from Twitter thing, from Bloomberg. Their sources, say that Parag Agarwal was Jack Dorsey's only serious candidate to replace him as Twitter CEO, and Elliott Management did not demand that Dorsey resign, quoting Kurt Wagner's reporting. While Dorsey's decision to step down as chief executive officer last week caught investors and employees by surprise, the framework for his departure, including identifying his designated replacement, had been in place for more than a year. The plan's early iterations didn't guarantee Agriwal the top job, and Twitter's board briefly considered a handful of external

Starting point is 00:13:12 candidates for the role, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. But Agrawal was Dorsey's top choice for the job, and he was the only candidate, internal or external, seriously considered when the time came to fill Dorsey's role, people familiar said. In a twist that surprised many observers, Twitter and Elliott management quickly came to a public settlement just weeks after first contact. Twitter would add Elliot's Jesse Cohen to its board. The board would review its corporate governance and succession plan for CEO, and Twitter and Twitter would agree to new user growth and revenue goals. Silver Lake invested $1 billion in Twitter, and Durbin was added to the board as well.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Dorsey would keep his job for the time being. Some wondered whether the truce would be short-lived, given Elliot's track record of CEO ousters. Yet less than a year later, in October 2021, Dorsey alerted the company's directors and some of its top staff of his plans to resign, according to a person familiar with the move. Though Elliott's agitation for change led to speculation that it might have pushed Dorsey out, after all, the firm didn't give Dorsey a new ultimatum or demand that he resigned, two people familiar said. Still, Elliot never fully disappeared.

Starting point is 00:14:20 Twitter announced a handful of ambitious revenue goals during an analyst event in February 2021, its first analyst day since 2014, including a goal to double annual revenue by 2023. Cohen announced in April that he would step off the company's board, but just a month later, Elliot bought more than $200 million in additional Twitter stock after shares slumped following a poor earnings report. The deeper investment was a not-so-suttle reminder that while Cohen was leaving the board, Elliot was still nearby and waiting to pounce if things didn't improve. As of August, it still owned a large Twitter stake worth well over $1 billion, according to a person familiar

Starting point is 00:14:56 with the companies. It's possible that these lofty goals and the looming prospect of further activist investor pressure helped inspire Dorsey's departure. It's also, also possible that Square, now named Block, simply aligns more closely with Dorsey's passions. He's an outspoken Bitcoin proponent tweeting about the digital currency constantly. While Twitter is dabbling in crypto and blockchain technologies, Block is more focused on financial technology and has an entire division building Bitcoin-related financial services. No matter why Dorsey left, Elliot is still paying close attention to Twitter. Even though the firm no longer has a board seat, its statement the day Dorsey resigned gave Agarwal

Starting point is 00:15:32 a full-throated endorsement, end quote. nothing for you today because I'm sort of in a rush. A photographer from the New York Times is coming to take my picture today, which, you know, in no way a sure thing, but you might see Chris and I talking about doing the TechMeme Ride Home experience on Twitter spaces in the New York Times. Sometime in the next week or so, you never know how the article actually turn out or even if it runs at all.

Starting point is 00:16:04 But the prospect is forcing me to clean up my desk and recording studio for the first time since the pandemic started so that they can take my picture doing my thing, I guess. So I got to get busy doing that. Talk to you tomorrow.

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 12/08 – AWS Outage Is Why You Didn’t Get Your Package

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