Techmeme Ride Home

That big NYTimes piece about location data, is Facebook taking another run at creating its own OS, is Apple considering buying James Bond, is Spotify building a social graph, and do e-athletes need gaming socks? Sponsors: TinyCapital.com Rhone.com/ridehome Links: Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy (NYTimes) Facebook will bar posts, ads that spread disinformation about the U.S. Census (Washington Post) To Control Its Destiny, Facebook Bets Big on Hardware (The Information) Apple Held Preliminary Talks With Pac-12 Conference, MGM (WSJ) Spotify prototypes Tastebuds to revive social music discovery (TechCrunch) A milestone: Earthquake early warning system sends first public alert to smartphones in California (Los Angeles Times) TiVo to Merge With Entertainment-Tech Firm Xperi in $3 Billion Deal (Variety) Puma’s first ‘active gaming footwear’ is a sock (Engadget)

Everyone comes together to create a smart-home standard, did Google consider walking away from its cloud business, the last holdout comes to streaming, Gary Larson stops holding out on the web and the math behind that gift-wrapping video. Sponsors: Tiny Capital Aircall.io/ride Links: Apple, Google and Amazon are cooperating to make your home gadgets talk to each other (CNBC) We Tested Ring’s Security. It’s Awful (Motherboard) Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud (The Information) Cord cutters, you can finally stream your PBS stations online – on YouTube TV (USA Today) Virtual product placement is coming for TV and movies and Ryff has raised cash to put it there (TechCrunch) Far Side creator Gary Larson launches website with promise of new work (The Guardian) A Letter From Gary Larson (TheFarSide.com) The Internet Is Losing Its Mind Over This Gift-Wrapping Trick. Here's the Secret. (Popular Mechanics) The Gift Wrapping Video

More reported casualties in the Google Civil War, more strife between Amazon and FedEx, can Amazon turn Alexa into a healthy ecosystem, developers: get busy on Edge extensions, and the top apps of the decade have one big thing in common. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: Google accused of firing another worker in union-busting drive (Engadget) Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments (WSJ) Amazon Learns a New Skill: Making Money From Alexa (The Information) Amazon Brings in $1.4 Million in 2019 of Alexa Skill Revenue So Far — Well Short of the $5.5 Million Target According to The Information (Voicebot.ai) Microsoft Opens Edge Addons Store for Submissions (Winbuzzer) A Look Back At the Top Apps & Games of the Decade (App Annie) Controversial sale of .org domain manager faces review at ICANN (Ars Technica) Chess champion Magnus Carlsen moves to top of world fantasy football rankings (The Guardian)

More reported casualties in the Google Civil War, more strife between Amazon and FedEx, can Amazon turn Alexa into a healthy ecosystem, developers: get busy on Edge extensions, and the top apps of the decade have one big thing in common. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: Google accused of firing another worker in union-busting drive (Engadget) Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground for Prime Shipments (WSJ) Amazon Learns a New Skill: Making Money From Alexa (The Information) Amazon Brings in $1.4 Million in 2019 of Alexa Skill Revenue So Far — Well Short of the $5.5 Million Target According to The Information (Voicebot.ai) Microsoft Opens Edge Addons Store for Submissions (Winbuzzer) A Look Back At the Top Apps & Games of the Decade (App Annie) Controversial sale of .org domain manager faces review at ICANN (Ars Technica) Chess champion Magnus Carlsen moves to top of world fantasy football rankings (The Guardian)

Chrome 79 is wiping data from some apps, Amazon is about to deliver more than FedEx or UPS all by its lonesome, Argo plans to charge by the mile, smart TV’s make margin by watching you, does music lack pricing power and help me find a name for $100 million-dollar annual recurring revenue startups. Sponsors: TinyCapital.com DollarShaveClub.com/ride Links: Google pauses Chrome 79 rollout on Android after bug wipes data in some apps (Android Police) Watch out, UPS. Morgan Stanley estimates Amazon is already delivering half of its packages (CNBC) Self-Driving Mercedes Will Be Programmed To Sacrifice Pedestrians To Save The Driver (Fast Company) Argo takes different road to skirt self-driving challenges (Reuters) The falling price of a TV set is the story of the American economy (The Outline) The newest members of the $100M ARR club (TechCrunch) Zero-to-100 Million in 3 Years (Lemonade Blog) Why Do We Still Pay Only $10 a Month for Music? (Rolling Stone)

For the final weekend bonus episode of the year, I wanted to check in with Crypto. What a year for the space! Seemingly dead at the beginning of the year. But then the Crypto Spring™ happened. And then Libra happened. And so… where are we? No one better than CoinDesk’s Brady Dale to catch us up… Sponsors: PixelUnion.net Mealime Sofi.com/ride

Details about the next-gen Xbox, Apple makes an interesting acquisition around photography, Lyft will rent you a car, why I find Roku so interesting, and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Today In Digital Marketing Podcast PixelUnion.net aircall.io/ride Links: Microsoft’s next Xbox is Xbox Series X, coming holiday 2020 (The Verge) Apple Buys U.K. Startup to Improve iPhone Picture Taking (Bloomberg) Lyft launches a car rental service with no mileage limit (The Verge) Google Maps has now photographed 10 million miles in Street View (CNET) Roku Built the Dominant Streaming Box. Now It’s Under Siege (Bloomberg BusinessWeek) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: THE AGE OF INSTAGRAM FACE (New Yorker) The Influencer and the Hit Man (OneZero) Silicon Valley’s psychedelic wonder drug is almost here (Fast Company) How Zoom Became the Best Web-Conferencing Product in the World in Less Than 10 Years (FYI) “Link In Bio” is a slow knife (Anil Dash) THE VERGE’S GADGETS OF THE DECADE (The Verge)

Google releases all the things at once, everyone is mulling over Jack’s decentralized Twitter idea, one last tech IPO of the year, should seed investors just say yes to every deal, why you should know the Canva story, and why Cousin Greg playing Adam Neumann is my Christmas dream come true. Sponsors: PixelUnion.net GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: FTC Weighs Seeking Injunction Against Facebook Over How Its Apps Interact (WSJ) Google is bringing spam detection and verified business messaging to Messages (The Verge) Interpreter, Google's real-time translator, comes to mobile (TechCrunch) Bill.com’s Stock Takes Off On IPO Day (Forbes) AI R&D is booming, but general intelligence is still out of reach (The Verge) Startup Growth and Venture Returns: What We Found When We Analyzed Thousands of VC Deals (AngelList Blog) Bluesky early thoughts (Sriramk.com) Hey @Jack Dorsey, decentralizing Twitter won’t solve hate speech problems (Digital Trends) Inside the Podcast that Hacks Ring Camera Owners Live on Air (Motherboard) Canva Uncovered: How A Young Australian Kitesurfer Built A $3.2 Billion (Profitable!) Startup Phenom (Forbes)

A bold new proposal to decentralize social media from Jack Dorsey, YouTube bans “malicious insults,” you can only clean your Pro Display XDR with a special cloth, Silicon Valley is no longer everyone’s favorite place to work and the big tech companies whistled past their troubles this year. Sponsors: aircall.io/ride Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Links: The Bluesky Thread (@jack) YouTube Will Ban Videos That “Maliciously Insult” People Based On Race, Gender, Or Sexual Orientation (Buzzfeed News) Apple's Pro Display XDR With Nano-Texture Can Only Be Cleaned With Special Apple-Provided Cloth (MacRumors) Intel's Manufacturing Roadmap from 2019 to 2029 (AnandTech) Chrome 79 released with tab freezing, back-forward caching, and loads of security features (ZDNet) Facebook, Google Drop Out of Top 10 ‘Best Places to Work’ List (Bloomberg) Big Tech Is Under Attack, and Investors Couldn’t Care Less (NYTimes)

Apple is suing its former chip architect, the Apple Card finally makes sense to me, wheels on the Mac Pro will run you $400, Softbank abandons Wag, Microsoft brings Office to Linux and I want the new tech bubble to be about exoskeletons. Sponsors: PixelUnion.net Today In Digital Marketing Podcast Links: Apple sues iPhone CPU design ace after he quits to run data-center chip upstart Nuvia (The Register) Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market (The Information) Apple Cards' interest-free iPhone installment plan goes live, now with 6% back on Apple holiday purchases (TechCrunch) SoftBank Is Selling Wag Stake Back to Company (WSJ) Microsoft Teams is the first Office app for Linux (VentureBeat) Mac Pro Build to Order Options (MacRumors) VSCO acquires video editing startup Rylo (TechCrunch) Robotic exoskeletons: Coming to a factory, warehouse or army near you, soon (ZDNet)

China orders its own crackdown on foreign tech, Google is bringing “feature drops” to Pixel Phones, the Mac Pro is here but Wunderlist is exiting stage left, Magic Leap seems to be having issues, and an interesting raise from, well… us. Sponsors: Ashford.edu/ride Netgear.com/bestwifi Links: Beijing orders state offices to replace foreign PCs and software (Asian Financial Review) Making Pixel more helpful with the first Pixel feature drop (The Keyword) New Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR orders start on December 10, Apple announces (9to5Mac) Amazon blames Trump for losing $10 billion JEDI cloud contract to Microsoft (CNBC) Microsoft to finally shut down to do list app Wunderlist on May 6, 2020 (TechCrunch) Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses (The Information) Amazon leases Hudson Yards office space less than year after HQ2 debacle (Curbed NY) This podcaster wants to catch you up on the news on your ride home, no matter what you’re into (Fast Company) Ride Home Media Raises $1M To Build “Summary-As-A-Service” Podcast Network (CrunchBase News) The Daily Podcast Revolution (Medium)

The Uber safety report, more Galaxy S11 rumors, could Apple be about to kill the charging port on iPhones entirely and what would that mean, Samsung’s new chips to make AR mainstream and of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Metalab PaintYourLife. Text TECH to 64-000 Links: Uber Says 3,045 Sexual Assaults Were Reported in U.S. Rides Last Year (NYTimes) Samsung to Take on iPhone’s Popularity With Big Camera Overhaul (Bloomberg) Kuo: Apple to Launch 'Completely Wireless' iPhone Without Lightning Connector and 'iPhone SE 2 Plus' With Touch ID Power Button in 2021 (MacRumors) 5G and face tracking: The weird future of VR headsets like Oculus Quest and HoloLens (CNET) Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8c and 7c processors will power cheaper ARM laptops (The Verge) Spotify Year In Review Thread (@baekdal) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How Ring Went From ‘Shark Tank’ Reject to America’s Scariest Surveillance Company (Motherboard) Inside VSCO, a Gen Z-approved photo-sharing app, with CEO Joel Flory (TechCrunch) Commentary: Andy Jassy aims to reinvent Amazon Web Services for the cloud’s next generation (Silicon Angle) Why Silicon Valley Investors Are Bonkers For European Startups (Forbes) A decade of hacking: The most notable cyber-security events of the 2010s (ZDNet) HOW SONY BOUGHT, AND SQUANDERED, THE FUTURE OF GAMING (The Verge) The difference between Windows Notepad and WordPad, and when to use each (Windows Central) Why ‘The Mandalorian’ cites Fortnite dev Epic Games in its credits (VentureBeat) Unintended Perk of the Online Mattress Boom: Never-Ending Free

I’ve been trying to read books about AI lately to get a firmer grasp on this important topic, and the best book I’ve read for both a basic grounding of the history and the state of play of AI, but also looking at potential frameworks for the technology, both ethically and socially is A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Who We Are by Flynn Coleman. Sponsors: PixelUnion Mealime

I had already reached out to Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen this week to talk about the Google Civil War, but then, of course, there was other big Google news this week. So, come for the assessment of Google’s culture at the moment but stay for an assessment of regime change and a lot more. Sponsors: Metalab Mealime

The FTC might be broadening its look into Amazon, the new flagship Snapdragon Chips, a disc-free Xbox, checkins with Slack, Imgur and Robinhood, and craigslist enters the 21st century. Sponsors: Metalab.co Vistaprint.com Promo Code: Ride50 (for up to 50% off) Links: Amazon Faces Widening U.S. Antitrust Scrutiny in Cloud Business (Bloomberg) Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 865 and 765(G): 5G For All in 2020, All The Details (AnandTech) Sources: Microsoft Is Still Planning A Cheaper, Disc-Less Next-Gen Xbox (Kotaku) Slack Raises Outlook After Winning New Corporate Customers (WSJ) 300M-user Imgur launches Melee, a gaming meme app (TechCrunch) Red Flags for Robinhood (Fortune) Craigslist Finally Gets an Official App (Gizmodo)

Larry and Sergey ride their Segway’s off into the sunset, a new entrant in the streaming wars, more news from the re:Invent conference, YouTube says it’s algorithm change is working and the year that was, in the world of Reddit. Sponsors: Metalab Capterra.com/ride GiveWell.org/ridehome Links: A letter from Larry and Sergey (The Keyword) GOOGLE’S THIRD ERA (The Verge) Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service in over 200 countries (TechCrunch) With Outposts, Local Zones, and Verizon, AWS looks beyond the cloud (Mostly Cloudy) YouTube says viewers are spending less time watching conspiracy videos. But many still do. (The Washington Post) Instagram to collect ages in leap for youth safety, alcohol ads (Reuters) Reddit's monthly active user base grew 30% to reach 430M in 2019 (TechCrunch) Subreddit That Hates on ‘Game of Thrones’ Is the Most Popular TV Subreddit of 2019 (The Wrap)

Headlines from re:Invent, how tech is caught up in a tariff war with France, Facebook created a chatbot to help employees explain themselves during the holidays, and let me tell you about the new foldable phone from Pablo Escobar’s brother. Sponsors: Metalab Netgear.com/bestwifi Links: AWS Graviton2: What it means for Arm in the data center, cloud, enterprise, AWS (ZDNet) AWS launches its custom Inferentia inferencing chips (TechCrunch) Trump Administration Proposes Tariffs Against $2.4 Billion of French Goods (WSJ) Former Google employees who say they were fired for organizing are filing labor charges against the company (Vox) Google fired us for organizing. We’re fighting back. (Google Walkout For Real Change) TikTok curbed reach for people with disabilities (NetzPolitik.org) TikTok prevented disabled users’ videos from showing up in feeds (The Verge) DHS wants to expand airport face recognition scans to include US citizens (TechCrunch) Facebook Gives Workers a Chatbot to Appease That Prying Uncle (NYTimes) Pablo Escobar's Brother Has Apple In His Crosshairs With... an 'Unbreakable' Foldable Phone? (Gizmodo)

Interesting Galaxy S11 leaks, T-Mobile flips the switch on its 5G network, might different models of next year’s iPhone have different versions of 5G, the rundown of Black Friday/Cyber Monday and why an e-sports team is IPO-ing. Sponsors: Legacybox.com/ride Sofi.com/ride Links: Samsung Suddenly Exposes Radical New Galaxy Smartphone [Updated] (Forbes) T-Mobile launches 600MHz 5G across the US, but no one can use it until December 6th (The Verge) 4 new iPhones could have 5G in 2020, but not the same kind of 5G (Mashable) Google and Facebook run into more trouble over data in Europe (CNN Business) Driving Innovation in Data Portability with a New Photo Transfer Tool (Facebook Newsroom) Black Friday sees record $7.4B in online sales, $2.9B spent using smartphones (TechCrunch) Now even the FBI is warning about your smart TV's security (TechCrunch) Amazon debuts automatic speech recognition service, Amazon Transcribe Medical (TechCrunch) Amazon’s kooky new keyboard lets humans and AI write music together (Fast Company) Counter-Strike World Champions Aim for First Esport Team IPO (Bloomberg)

since it’s a holiday week in the US, I’m going to do what I’ve done once before on Holiday weeks and give you an episode from the Internet History Podcast archives. This is a story about tech history that, if you’ve never heard it, will blow your mind. What if I told you there was a crazy entrepreneur who was the true founder of what would become America Online? He was the guy who hired Steve Case back before AOL was AOL. What if I told you that same entrepreneur invented true, networked, online gaming—not in the era of the Xbox 360, or Stadia, but back in the days of the Atari 2600? What if I then told you that same entrepreneur invented a Napster/Pandora/Spotify/Sirius-like music service, all the way back in 1981, before the compact disc was even widely available? That Man Is William von Meister And he is the subject of this episode. This is a crazy story, about a hard drinking, heavy-smoking, women-chasing entrepreneur, seemingly from the Mad Men cloth, who was “a pathological entrepreneur” with a “reality-distortion-field” that would give Steve Jobs a run for his money. It’s a story of about a dozen harebrained businesses, none of which were really successful (excepting of course that some or all of them lent their DNA to the company that would become AOL) but all of which were way ahead of their time, and in many ways, presaged technologies we take for granted today. Sponsors: CloudBees.io Mealime

Uber loses its license in London, the web’s founder launches a “contract” to save it, eBay sells StubHub, the Threadrippers seem to be the real deal, Deadpool is buying a mobile carrier and Elon Musk knows why those windows cracked. Sponsors: Mealime DollarShaveClub.com/ride Links: Uber loses London licence after TfL finds drivers faked identity (The Guardian) Tim Berners-Lee unveils global plan to save the web (The Guardian) EBay to sell StubHub to Viagogo for about $4 billion in cash (CNBC) India's financial services firm Paytm raises $1B (TechCrunch) The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X Review: 24 and 32 Cores on 7nm (AnandTech) AMD confirms 64-core Threadripper 3990X for 2020 (The Verge) Ryan Reynolds now owns a stake in budget carrier Mint Mobile (Engadget) Elon Musk explains why Tesla’s Cybertruck windows smashed during presentation (The Verge) Tesla's polarizing Cybertruck was preordered 200,000 times within 3 days (USA Today)