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Ramblings about all the tech worth talking about, with Danial Shaikh and Shubham Datta
35 Episodes
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From desktops to mobile, the newsfeed has become a fundamental element of how we interact with software today. Danial and Shubham discuss the history of the newsfeed and its recent evolution into the "story", popularized by Snapchat.
On this week’s episode, we talk about media. First we discuss Netflix’s earnings release and how it's betting its future on original content. We then shift gears to President Trump’s inauguration, discuss broken records, his use of Twitter and whether the days of traditional media outlets like CNN are in the past.
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This week we discuss Nintendo's Switch, its implications on the broader gaming industry, and whether we think it'll capture gamers' attention. Then we discuss McKinsey’s latest report on workplace automation and consider how certain industries will need to change and adapt to the the new ways of doing work.
On this week's episode, we kick off 2017 by highlighting the major themes from this year's Consumer Electronics Show. We saw companies continue to push artificial intelligence into the home by adding voice control into every possible crevice. We then move to Nvidia, a company that almost tripled in value in 2016, who's graphics processing technology is making AI possible at some of the largest companies in the world.
Links
Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It - Backchannel
Amazon’s Alexa is everywhere at CES 2017 - The Verge
Nvidia hits prime time at CES this year - TechCrunch
Nvidia and Audi aim to bring a self-driving AI car to market by 2020 - TechCrunch
2016 has been a year of both surprises (virtual reality finally made it to market!) and disappointments (everything related to conversational commerce...). However, when looking back, it's clear that several key themes came to define the year and lay the groundwork for the years ahead. As we close out 2016, Danial and Shubham look back at these themes, including: artificial intelligence, the evolution of social media, the emergence of live video on all our various feeds, the mainstream debut of virtual reality, and the continued developments in the field of autonomous vehicles.
Wearables were supposed to be the next big thing. However, after a year of disappointments, including lagging sales of the Apple Watch Series 2 and an absolute thrashing of Fitbit's stock price, it seems that the category won't live up the hype, at least not for the time being. The situation leaves us asking whether there anything that could push wearable products to the next level and make them essential to our lives?
On the other hand, we have single-purpose hardware products from the likes of GoPro, another company that has been facing turbulent times, including failed product launches and a significant downsizing of its workforce. Could this be another nail in the coffin of hardware startups?
Links
Fitbit is buying troubled smartwatch maker Pebble for around $40 million - TechCrunch
Moto pushes off smartwatches indefinitely - The Verge
GoPro Cutting 15% of Workforce, Closes Entertainment Unit - Bloomberg
Bytes is throwing its biggest sale of the year! Act now and get 100% of your weekly dose of Bytes in under half an hour!
You'll learn about the record breaking numbers posted by retailers on 2016's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale periods and the incredible growth of sales from mobile devices. Then, you'll hear about how you could soon save money by cancelling your cable package and signing up for Amazon Prime for all your live sports viewing needs! It's an absolute savings bonanza!
Don't miss it!
Links
Black Friday online sales to hit a record-breaking $3 billion, over $1 billion from mobile - TechCrunch
U.S. Cyber Monday sales jump, set to surpass initial estimate - Reuters
Amazon Shareholders, This Shopping Season Should Have You Worried - The Street
Why Amazon's Shares Are Slumping Despite Record Cyber Monday Sales - [Fortune] http://fortune.com/2016/11/28/cyber-monday-amazon-shares/
BuzzFeed Wants to Sell You Stuff - Fortune
Amazon Explores Possible Premium Sports Package With Prime Membership - The Wall Street Journal
Airbnb looks ready to shake up another industry as it moves beyond providing just accommodations with "Trips", a feature it hopes will attract travellers interested in experiences that leverage the expertise of locals. Elsewhere in the hospitality industry, McDonalds introduced mobile ordering and table service in an effort to hasten the speed of service at its countless restaurants.
Links
Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites - The New York Times
Instagram launches disappearing Live video and messages - TechCrunch
This is Snapchat’s new Spectacles store in New York City - TechCrunch
Airbnb's Ambitious Second Act Will Take It Way Beyond Couch-Surfing - Vanity Fair
McDonald’s Introduces Screen Ordering and Table Service - The New York Times
"#Election2016" has come and gone, and one thing is certain: social media has become absolutely integral to our lives. Sadly, as algorithms have learned more about us, our social media feeds have slowly closed us off to opposing viewpoints. Yet, as Facebook and Twitter become ever more important as sources of news, Instagram and Snapchat evolve to become better tools for content creation and curation.
Overall, it's obvious that social media is here to stay and its implications go far beyond simply staying in touch with loved ones. At a bare minimum, we can be sure that Snapchat will continue to deliver ever more elaborate filters for us hide behind.
Links
Facebook, in Cross Hairs After Election, Is Said to Question Its Influence - The New York Times
Facebook Messenger public chats arrive in two countries - Engadget
Instagram gets ready to go Live with video - Financial Times
Instagram stories now have mentions, links, and Boomerangs - The Verge
Twitter in talks to sell Vine - Variety
Snap Spectacles are here and they are ridiculously fun - The Verge
Snapchat's new World Lenses might show what its like to use Snap Spectacles - Quartz
After its Q3 2016 results failed to impress Wall Street, Facebook introduced an expanded shopping experience for Instagram in the hopes of convincing investors that it can continue its superb record of growth.
Microsoft unveiled Teams, its attempt to overtake the increasingly crowded realm of enterprise chat software, currently dominated by Slack. The company hopes Teams will bring together chat, the traditional Office suite, and a host of extensions to help teams get work done better and more efficiently.
Links
Facebook Defies Social Media Gravity With User and Profit Growth - The New York Times
Shopping Coming to Instagram - Instagram Blog
Microsoft Teams launches to take on Slack in the workplace - The Verge
...Slack's response to Microsoft Teams - Stewart Butterfield on Twitter
Apple's recent MacBook Pro announcements have critics once again predicting its downfall as it continues to shift its focus away from the professional user base that has come to rely on their products and towards the mainstream. All the while, Microsoft continued its attempts to attract professionals that would have otherwise purchased Apple hardware with its introduction of the Surface Studio and its Creators Update for Windows 10.
In the world of sustainable energy, Elon Musk made another big promise with his introduction of the Tesla solar roof, which he hopes will put Tesla in the position to help customers sustainably generate, store, and ultimately, consume, renewable energy.
Links
Apple announces new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Touch ID, and USB-C - The Verge
The Mac Platform Decline - Milen.Me
Apple's October TV Surprise - Unauthoritative Pronouncements
Microsoft Unveils Its First Desktop PC - The New York Times
The Bizarre Role Reversal of Apple and Microsoft - Backchannel
No One Saw Tesla’s Solar Roof Coming - Bloomberg
Despite its recently announced plans to finally launch games on iOS and Android, Nintendo announced the Switch this week, its followup to the ill-fated Wii U. Danial and Shubham argue about whether or not Nintendo's hybrid approach makes sense in a marketplace split between casual gamers, who prefer gaming on their smartphones, and hardcore gamers, who'd rather spend time with their PlayStation 4 or PC.
The two then discuss Tesla's announcement that all new Tesla vehicles will come equipped with the ability to be driven entirely autonomously (if you're willing to pay to unlock the feature) and compare Tesla's approach to Apple, who is purported to be scaling back its Apple Car initiatives.
Links
Nintendo Switch Reaches for a New Market With Home-and-Mobile Console - The New York Times
All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware - Tesla
How Apple Scaled Back Its Titanic Plan to Take on Detroit - Bloomberg
Artificial intelligence powered virtual assistants have become all the rage in the last year or so with both Amazon and Google announcing new products in the category. Danial and Shubham discuss what Amazon's unique approach to the Echo, and its focus on the home-first, rather than mobile-first, means for the industry.
The two then discuss Facebook's introduction of Workplace, which brings everything you love about Facebook into the office, minus the embarrassing photos and the constant barrage of memes.
Lastly, Danial and Shubham talk about what Snap Inc.'s recent changes to its marquee product, Snapchat, mean for its impending IPO.
Links
Amazon’s Music Service Launches With a Secret Weapon: Alexa - WIRED
Google Home will go on sale today for $129, shipping November 4 - TechCrunch
Facebook’s Slack competitor, Workplace, is finally here
Recode
Snapchat Picks Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs to Lead IPO - Bloomberg
Site2Site CEO Alex Snyder joins us to discuss his company's efforts to leverage technology to revolutionize the construction industry. After beginning life as a project to improve data acquisition at his parents' construction business, Site2Site has grown into a mobile app and platform that is now used by other companies in the UK, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
You can learn more about Site2Site here and keep up to date with the company on Twitter.
We talk to Khallil Mangalji, the co-founder of Fiix, a Toronto-based startup that sends reliable, experienced auto mechanics to your home and what this service means for the broken auto repair industry. Khallil chats about Fiix's unconventional path to Y Combinator, building a thriving marketplace, and how to change an industry full of bad practices.
Before founding Fiix, he worked at Facebook, Apple, and a bitcoin startup in East Africa. Learn more about Fiix here and make sure to follow Khallil on Snapchat (kmx411).
We explore the rise of the on-demand economy with special guest Meng Wang, Expansion Manager at Uber responsible for their UberEATS product in Toronto. We learn more about the early days of UberEATS, why Uber chose Toronto, Uber's approach to the chicken and egg problem that plagues marketplaces, and tactics that the company is using to align supply and demand.
We continue our chat with Jay Shah, co-founder of BufferBox: a company that designed, built, and deployed a network of automated parcel pick-up stations that were accessible around the clock in locations all around Toronto.
In part 2, Jay discusses exactly how BufferBox attracted the attention of Google, what it was like being acquired by the tech behemoth, and why the honeymoon didn't last. And finally, Jay imparts some words of wisdom for aspiring entrepreneurs on what BufferBox did right and what he would do differently if he were to start from scratch.
In this two-part special, we go behind the scenes of an incredible startup story: BufferBox a company that designed, built, and deployed a network of automated parcel pick-up stations that were accessible around the clock in locations all around Toronto.
We talk to Jay Shah, a co-founder of BufferBox, about the company’s journey as a startup working out of a tiny office on the University of Waterloo campus, to surviving the famous Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator (YC), and ultimately, being acquired by Google. In part 1, Jay discusses the initial spark that led to the idea for BufferBox, delivering packages by hand, and making it through YC.
Design goes far beyond the pretty graphics you see in an app or flashy product packaging. Design is about about the all the various experiences and interactions you have with a product. On this episode, we discuss design with industry veteran Mark Bult, most recently Art Director at Thanx, a Sequoia-backed startup that makes loyalty and retention marketing effortless for both merchants and consumers. With over 20 years of design experience working with amazing companies such as Fitbit, CNET, Cloudera and CBS, Mark helps unpack exactly what makes great design, his approach to design, and much more.
See what Mark is up to on Twitter and make sure to check out what he has to say on Medium.
How can artificial intelligence (AI) be leveraged to improve our lives? We sit down with Vikas Gosain of Maluuba to learn more about the applications of AI beyond simple chat bots and virtual assistants.
Follow Vikas on Twitter (@gosainnn) and check out Maluuba to see how deep learning can advancing the collective intelligence of humans and machines.
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